Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Part 1 - Atlantis
by gothicjedi666
Summary: The fourth part of my Jump Chain series of stories. It will start in the Pegasus galaxy and then branch out to the wider universe. The story will also feature Stargate characters. Warnings for all adult themes.
1. Chapter 1

**Author Note**

I know a few people wanted to me to write Ancient Gothic, so I was wondering if they'd accept me doing a Stargate: Atlantis story as part of the Jump Chain.

Character Sheet

Body Mods

-Point Allocation (600 CP)

-Build: Average (600 CP)

-Body Type: Athlete (500 CP)

-Strength x1 (450 CP)

-Endurance x1 (400 CP)

-Speed x2 (400 CP)

-Dexterity x2 (400 CP)

-Appeal x1 (350 CP)

-Shape x1 (300 CP)

-Sense x1 (250 CP)

-Endowed x1 (200 CP)

-Metavore (100 CP)

-Ever-cleansed (0 CP)

-Flexibility x1 (0 CP)

Warehouse

-Point Allocation (150 CP)

-Electricity (140 CP)

-Plumbing (130 CP)

-Heat/A.C. (120 CP)

-Force Wall (100 CP)

-Shelving (100 CP)

-Terminal (90 CP)

-Robots (70 CP)

-Housing (50 CP)

-Medbay (30 CP)

-Portal (0 CP)

Companion Housing Complex

-Point Allocation (1000 CP)

-Electric (1000 CP)

-Plumbing (1000 CP)

-Heat/A.C. (1000 CP)

-Deluxe Bedroom (900 CP)

-Deluxe Bathroom (800 CP)

-Dining Hall (750 CP)

-Deluxe Kitchen (600 CP)

-Entertainment Centre (500 CP)

-Library (300 CP)

-Garden (150 CP)

-Cleaning Closet (125 CP)

-Maintenance (125 CP)

-Medical Bay (125 CP)

-Rooms with a View (100 CP)

-Phone (50 CP)

-Theme (0 CP)

The Bay

\- Budget (20cp)

\- Maintenance Drones (16cp)

\- Fuelling Station (12cp)

\- Garage (11cp)

\- Machine Shop (10cp)

\- Automated Machine Shop (9cp)

\- Industrial Engineering Tools (6cp)

\- Matter Furnace (0cp)

Space Dock Add-on

\- Budget (200cp)

\- Maintenance Drones (185cp)

\- Fuelling Station (165cp)

\- Crew (140cp)

\- Cloaking Device (125cp)

\- Observation Deck (120cp)

\- Shields (100cp)

\- Hanger Bay Doors (90cp)

\- Extra Dry Dock (40cp)

\- Size Increase 1 (20cp)

\- Extra Docking Ports (10cp)

\- Defence Turrets (0CP)

Mass Effect Jump

\- Budget (1000cp)

\- Race: Human (1000cp)

\- Age 2d8 + 20 = 23 (1000cp)

\- Eden Prime (900cp)

\- Marine (800cp)

\- Sentinel Tech/Biotic (800cp)

\- Finesse (500cp)

\- Supportive Mindset (350cp)

\- Not A Stupid Grunt (50cp)

\- Loadout (50cp)

\- Extra Credits (0cp)

\- Shepard's Flock (100cp)

\- Assistant VI (0cp)

Terminator Jump

Drop-In - You wake up in your chosen location with no overlapping memories to mess with your mind.

Smash Those Metal Motherfuckers - You have received several years worth of training on how to fight. Giving you basic proficiency with the all hand-held weapons used in the 1980s to the 2000s. You won't necessarily know the entire ins and outs of the weapons, but you will know how to shoot them reliably. You also have a general idea of what kind of weapons would be needed to deal with armoured targets.

Judgement Day - You automatically know the exact date and time to Judgement Day. Outside this jump, Judgement Day counts as any mass extinction or apocalyptic event for sapient species within 100 years and how, but not why, it happens. Because the future is not written, this perk will keep track of the event to the hour. So if the 2 year away apocalyptic event turned into 2 weeks and 3 hours, you will instantly know.

Most Paranoid Delusions Are Intricate - For the normal person it's hard to find out who's actually telling the truth and who needs a straight jacket. You, however, can spot these. Whether it's through experience or a gut instinct, you will know if an apparent conspiracy theorist/nut-job is actually telling a factual or rational account. Grows in power and accuracy in relation to the threat. If they're telling the truth about the end of all mankind, you will know 100%.

Thank You, Jumper, For Your Courage Through The Dark Years - Your skills in passing on knowledge and raising people are great. You could train and raise a child to be able to fight and survive during humanities darkest hour. Whether it is one-on-one or with groups, you can give them your knowledge and courage.

Hey, Wait! You Swore! - Whenever you make a deal with someone, whether it be through a legal document or a pinky promise, they will not break it. If you make a machine that was built purely for assassination swear to not kill any human, no human casualties will accrue because of it. This doesn't give you a blanket cover. Said machine from earlier will still maim people and break ankles, but they will live. A person with an incredible amount of willpower can resist this perk. But no matter what, they will still feel really hesitant to and guilty if they do.

No Fate But What We Make - You are not bound by fate nor is anyone you work with. Your destiny is only what you make of it. No magician or time-traveller can ever force you onto a different path against your will. This extends to the point that people and things that are deemed unstoppable or even unkillable, just because they are destined to, can be killed by you permanently. Finally, it protects you from time-travellers in general. For if someone wants to kill you. They have to kill you in the present. Travelling through time to kill your mother won't work.

One Possible Future. From Your Point Of View - Time travel is anything but simple. One trip can be complicated. 5 can be downright absurd. But not for you. Not only can you tell what the date it is at any time, but you have a mind that can organize and understand the convoluted nature of multiple timelines.

Items:

And Your Motorcycle - A 1990 fatboy with black paint with red pinstripe, leather seating, leather side bags, chrome covered piping, and a chrome covered engine. This particular one is strong enough to carry a person weighing upwards of 800lbs and can keep going after falling down over 20ft and not loose any speed. It also comes with an infinite fuel supply.

Star Trek: Voyager Jump

Budget - 1000cp

Stowaway - 1000cp

Human - 1000cp

Trader: Mercantile & Diplomacy - 900cp

Adaptable - 850cp

Tapestry of Life - 700cp

Romulan Ale - 700cp

Disruptor Rifle - 500cp

Life Support Belt - 200cp

Runabout (free trader) - 200cp

Companions - 0cp

Miranda

Budget - 200cp

Stowaway - 200cp

Human - 200cp

Operations: Quartermaster - 200cp

Ship Shape - (free operations) - 200cp

Cloak for Runabout - 100cp

Tractor Beam - 0cp

Tali - 200cp

Budget - 200cp

Stowaway - 200cp

Human - 150cp

Operations: Engineering - 150cp

Ship Shape - (free operations) 150cp

TR-116 Rifle - 0cp

 **Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis**

 **Part 1**

 **Cosmic Warehouse. Outside of Time and Space.**

"You know this is the fourth Jump I've started, but I've never actually chosen where to go" I informed the group of women who over the years had become my companions "Mass Effect was chosen for me by that scary Jump Chan lad. Miranda chose Terminator for the perks, and Tali wanted Trek for technology. Now Seven wants Stargate: Atlantis".

Seven of Nine, the newest member of the team, gave me curious look.

"I was given the impression that I would be choosing this Jump" she said "Your offer was to aid me in obtaining perfection, in exchange for me joining your harem. Do you intend to go back on our deal".

Indeed that was what I'd offered, and Seven hadn't exactly been thrilled about returning to Trek Earth so soon after leaving the collective, as such she'd taken me up on my offer. Not that she would be gone long since time in the Trek verse we just left was frozen, but she'd have time to adjust.

Plus she could return with goddess like powers, which would prevent her from ever being locked up and studied. She been concerned that this would happen as Starfleet would want to learn about the Borg. I didn't think this would actually happen due to Starfleet being made up of sissies, but if she wanted to spend more time exploring and learning before returning to her home world then all the better for me.

As for the whole perfection thing, she seemed to think learning about Ancient technology while exploring a whole new galaxy, or maybe several would improve her as a person. I would have thought her becoming closer towards perfection would have involved improving her body as well as her mind. Then again with a body like hers perhaps she did need any.

Although thinking on it, we might be able to become more evolved like the Ancients by achieving a state close to ascension, but that was something to think about later.

"I'm picking the next Jump for sure" I told the group "It's going to be somewhere I can learn magic".

No one had anything to say about that. I did have plenty to say on the subject, but I didn't think anyone cared to listen.

"Okay let's set things up" I said.

Background: Drop In

Starting Location: Uninhabited Planet with a Stargate

Perks:

ATA Gene (50 CP) (950): You seem to have a strong expression of the Ancient Technology Activation gene: enough for Ancient devices to respond to you, which would make you valuable to the Atlantis Expedition for this reason alone. After this jump, you may choose to emulate the bare minimum gene sequences that alien biometric sensors look for in "friendlies" to reactivate, though you don't gain any functionality of those genes. Whether this perk involves actual biology or ﬁat is up to you, but either way it still won't help if tech is locked to unique individuals rather than general groups.

ATA Gene Natural (50 CP) (900): Basically an improved version of the above perk allowing for better control of Ancient technology.

Still in There (100cp) (800) : Molecules discorporated to be recorporated someplace else? Consciousness uploaded into a digital realm? Frozen for thousands of years as a cryogenically preserved meat popsicle? Split into multiple versions via technobabble? Or just being tortured, killed and resurrected over and over again? All of these arguably involve being technically or temporarily dead, which can end a Jumper's chain. But you no longer have to worry about such thesian maritime issues. Your continuity of self endures, even if there might not be much for you to be aware of. There's no worry of going mad (not from the death part anyway) if you were disposed to such things, but this perk only goes so far; if you die by accident or by the deliberate intent to end you permanently, this perk won't activate.

It's All Kruvis To Me (Free): Whether you're in another country or another galaxy, understanding people you've never met before or reading the local signs just isn't a problem – everything you focus on seems to be spoken and even written in your language. Convenient! It doesn't even look dubbed or subbed unless you concentrate, which you can also do to toggle this perk oﬀ or on. Works both ways if you're trying to communicate with people, but doesn't help with technobabble or if you aren't paying attention.

Aurora-Class Battleship (800 CP) (0): While it is built with the timeless aesthetics of all Ancient craft, this vessel is a little short on personal luxuries; it is a Lantean warship, over three kilometers long and used in the war against the Wraith. This ship has a galactic-class hyperdrive and amazing sublight engine performance, able to be modiﬁed to push nearly c. Comes with a ZPM, excellent shields, batteries of pulse weapons and a full complement of drone missiles for armament; more than a match in a ﬁght for any one of the other starships listed here except a fully-supplied City Ship. Its hangars are small, but twenty puddle jumpers can be found therein. Enough to evacuate the whole crew, assuming there is anywhere to go.

"Okay let's give everything another look over, and then everyone over than me get into stasis for the Jump" I ordered.

Hopefully I was going to have some fun with this Jump, and after years spent on Voyager I sure as heck needed it.

(Line Break)

 **Unknown Planet. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Cameron and I appeared on an Earth like planet, that was somewhere within the Pegasus galaxy, a mere moment after starting the Jump. Unsurprisingly, at least for me, we found ourselves in a wooded area that could have been a wilderness in North American, the only odd thing about this place was the huge Ancient made Aurora-class battleship which could be seen poking above the tree line.

The Aurora-class battleship was one of a series of Lantean battleships used during the Lanteans' war with the Wraith. They were among the most advanced class of warships ever created, at least in this universe. This ship was more than a match for any vessel native to this galaxy aside from a fully functional city-ship, or maybe a ZPM powered Hive Ship.

Upon inspection it was clear that the vessel was long and slender, being far longer than it was wide. The craft possessed a light brown hull with accents of dark brown outlining sections at the front and rear of the ships. Not my first choice for a paint scheme, but it would do.

While at a distance the Aurora-class appeared rather sleek and symmetrical, the hull of the ship was somewhat chunky being lined with arrays of weapons turrets, armour plates, viewing ports, as well as other things I couldn't identify. At least not yet.

"How do we get inside?" Cameron wondered.

That was a good question, and I was pleased that starting a new Jump hadn't reset her personality to the point were she'd stand around not saying or do anything until either spoken to, or ordered into action.

During the setup for this jump my bodyguard/sex bot, had been rebooting or something like that, in order to be prepared for the next Jump. However I need not have worried, she was still Cameron.

Unlike my other physical companions, and I did consider her to be one of my compionans, even if she was technically a perk given as a bonus for completing a Jump.

Cameron did not wear any kind of bodysuit. She wore more normal clothing, at least by the standards of my time.

Right now she was wearing a pair of really tight jeans, which made her ass look super great, along with boots that were both practical and still somewhat fashionable, at least according to her.

Underneath her leather jacket was one of my t-shirts, which Cameron had taken for herself, as females often did, it declared her support for the band Black Sabbath. I was pretty sure that she wouldn't recognize their music if I played it.

Currently she wasn't wearing a bra, and as for underwear, she'd picked out a pair for me to approve of her wearing, and they were small enough to floss with. Not that I'd tried, and not that she would mind if I did.

In other ways she did not look so normal, her belt was a life support belt, which she didn't really need for the most part, however the device did act as a weak personal shield, and combined with the kinetic barrier generator that she also carried, she was well protected even without taking into account how tough terminators were.

Last of she carried a phaser, but one of a pistol design I'd recreated from old records while on Voyager, she also carried a shotgun made from Mass Effect technology. Which had been modified for Borg killing and should make short work of any Wraith we met. Regenerative abilities don't matter much if you freeze someone solid and then shatter them, or incinerate them so that they turn into ash within seconds.

While I couldn't see to check I was fairly certain that she was also carrying a nine millimetre pistol somewhere on her person, as well as a couple of daggers. She took her role as my bodyguard very seriously. To her protecting me was even more important than our sex life. And to her that was extremely important.

As for me I wore my Colossus armour, which had served me well for many years, I carried a weapon of my own invention called a phased particle rifle, which combined Trek and Mass Effect technology. Of course that wasn't my only weapon. I also carried a dagger hidden on my person, a pistol and a couple of grenades.

Like Cameron, I had on a life support belt, and I was protected by a powerful kinetic barrier, this combined with my armour meant I was safe enough that my sexy cyborg wasn't too worried about me being outdoors and exposed like this.

"I'm not sure" I told Cameron as we can walking towards the ship "I guess it will have an air lock or a loading ramp that we can use to get on board. I have the Ancient gene so the ship should just let me in once we find a entrance".

Being an Ancient vessel, both in the sense of having built by the Ancients and possibly being more than ten thousand years old, it make might use of ring platforms for boarding. If so I'd hopefully be able to trigger them.

If entry did require a loading ramp or an airlock I wasn't too worried about gaining entry, one of the perks I'd chosen for this Jump was to have the ATA gene naturally, this meant I should have the same level of control as John Shepard did when he used Ancient technology.

Hopefully this meant the craft would respond to my thoughts as well the manipulation of the tactil controls. If it didn't then I'd have to spend quite a lot of time figuring out what all the buttons did.

"Can it take off and reach space?" was her next question.

I remembered an Atlantis episode involving a ship like this one being stuck in a base that was on top of an exploding volcano. Mckay had to use the battleship's hyperdrive in order to get into space while the ship was being thrown into the the air by the eruption. Hopefully we could just use the craft's thrusters.

"No idea" I admitted "We'll find out more once we get on board".

First things first. We needed to find a way in.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Not long after entering the ship, and after opening a door to the Cosmic Warehouse so that I could free Miranda, Tali and Seven from stasis, I found what passed as a command centre and what looked like the captain's chair.

Once I sat in it, the ship seemed to come to life. Lights came on, the life support systems began circulating the air, and I became aware of the ship's controls and layout.

It was an odd feeling, I'd not been able to imagine what being mentally linked to a ship was actually like, and I knew that if I'd tried I would have gotten it totally wrong. It was super weird to think at a ship and have it do stuff.

Thankfully either my perks were working well or the ship knew that I didn't really want to fire the weapons despite having just thought about them. It could have gotten messy if I'd not had proper control.

The ship had physical controls that humans could use their hands to interact with, but these seemed to require me to unlock them. Which I was able to do simply by touching the consoles.

Getting up I went over to what passed for a tactical station on this ship. Unlike Starfleet the Ancients hadn't felt the need to sugarcoat the truth of how violent space travel could actually be by calling their defensive and offensive systems 'tactical'.

Ships of the Aurora-class boasted an arsenal of drone weapons capable of destroying a Wraith Hive ship in a single salvo. They were fired using Control chair, but those were not the only weapons this ship had.

"Cameron this will be your station" I decided "I know how much you like big guns".

She nodded in confirmation of this.

"According to the read out this ship has 16 pulse weapon turrets placed around the ship, allowing for complete coverage of the vessel" I said to her.

While these weapons were far less effective than drone weapons, they are still capable of heavily damaging a Wraith Hive ship if my memories of the show were correct.

Also the ship had some impressive shields. Unlike the "bubble" shields used by most other vessels that I'd seen in action, the Aurora-class's shields closely coutured the hull of the ship. I didn't know if this was better or worse than "bubble" shields, but I guessed we would find out.

Next were the controls that over saw power generation and energy use. This included the ZPM, which was currently helping to power the shields, weapons and engines. Other systems, such as sensors and life support, didn't require so much energy and ran off the ship's main reactor.

"Miranda you can have this station" I offered.

She'd never had a place on the bridge before, even on the Normandy she'd rarely worked in the C&C, but if she was pleased to have a station here she didn't display any feelings on the matter. Not that I looked at her face for long as she was rocking that old black and white bodysuit, which always drew my attention to her ass and boobs, and that was totally by design.

"Okay this one is hyperdrive and propulsion systems" I said "Tali your up".

The quarian was currently in her human form, and like Miranda she wore a tight body suit, which should be impossible to move in, yet she might as well have been naked as it didn't seem to limit her body's movements at all.

"Aurora-class ships have an interstellar hyperdrive" I explained to the brilliant young engineer "Which while much faster than Mass Effect or Warp drives still limits us to the Pegasus galaxy".

As the Ancients had clearly possessed intergalactic hyperdrive technology at the time that the Aurora-class was created (proven by the fact that such hyperdrives were present on city ships which had been built before the Aurora-class) it was possible that this interstellar limit was intentional, perhaps to prevent the Wraith from reverse-engineering their own intergalactic drive.

"But since we have ZPM we've got more than enough power for a hyperdrive fast enough to reach other galaxies, so if we can figure out how to upgrade to the type of hyperdrive to the city-ships have we could explore other galaxies" I went to say "Something for you to look into".

I had more to say.

"Once we get this ship to the space dock I want to try to install a tractor beam and a transporter, and maybe a few replicators too" I said to Tali.

If nothing else that would save on having to store lots of food, and other supplies on board. As for the tractor beam well my space dock could house two ships so if given the chance I might want to two another ship to the space dock.

"Aye-aye Skipper" she replied.

The Space Dock Add-on had been awarded to me as a bonus for completing the Voyager Jump well before the ten year limit was up. This had been accomplished by getting the Starfleet vessel back home using Quantum Slipstream drive and my AI Cortana, who'd been able to deal with the many course adjustments with the speed of a machine mind.

Once we got this ship off the ground I should be able to fly it to the Space Dock, and once there we could refit it to our heart's content. We could also pick up our robot crew, which would make flying the ship easier.

I should be able to fly it just using the control chair, but that would be a strain and I suspected that in battle I'd find controlling the ship to be overwhelming. Hence I was glad for my skilled harem and the fact that Ancient technology was pretty use to use.

"Which will be my station?" Seven of Nine enquired.

There was much more to this ship than what could be seen on the few consoles currently running.

For example Aurora-class ships possessed a subspace communications array allowing them to send out distress signals or communicate at faster-than-light speeds with other vessels over interstellar distances. However having the former Borg drone oversee that station would be pointless since there was no one to talk to here. Well actually there was, but I didn't think calling them would be a good idea.

Aside from that we had many stasis pods and holding cells, but they also rather useless at the moment since we had no need to put anyone to sleep for a long journey or to lock them up.

The ship also had an impressive set of sensors, that were based on subspace technology much like those used on Starfleet ship, so Seven should have no trouble using them.

"You'll be here" I told my fellow cyborg as I directed her to the console which monitored and directed the scanners "You're the science officer".

With that I went and sat back down in the command chair.

"Okay I'll try to fly into orbit, then we can worry about charting a course in hyperspace to the space dock" I decided.

Best to deal with one problem at a time. Defy gravity now, break the light speed barrier later.


	2. Chapter 2

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 2**

 **Aurora-Class Battleship. Space Dock.**

As I jogged down one of the main corridors of this more than 3,000 meter long vessel, part of my mind kept track of were my legs were going while the rest of me did some thinking. This wasn't true multitasking, it was just that running in a straight line didn't take up very much of my attention.

The only thing I had to worry about running into was one of the robot crew, which were crude machines the Space Dock Supplement had provided. Compared to Cameron, my terminator, these robots were clunky and boring, however they did the job they were suppose to do. Which was to maintain and repair the ship.

While a combination of body mod perks and gene mods meant that my fitness level remained high, and that my life expectancy was about a 150 years, however I was still getting older. I'd been on the Jump Chain for many years, and my time on Voyager had made me lazier. At least by Alliance Marine standards.

Granted I hadn't aged that much, and I was still in good shape, but I felt the need to work on my physical fitness, hence the running. I wondered if it was possible to have a midlife crisis while still being in a young man's body.

It was hard to imagine, but once I'd been overweight and I'd loathed exercise. Jump Chain had done me a favour of sorts by turning me into an Alliance Marine, it had given me a lot more self discipline, which was just what you needed in order to enforce an exercise program on yourself.

Another thing that helped with the jogging was the sheer size of the ship, it had massive corridors that kept straight, this hadn't been the case on other vessels that I'd served on. The largest of Voyager's deck had always curved somewhat due to Starfleet's odd habit of building ships with saucer sections.

The USS Voyager had only been 345 meters long, and it had seemed like a flying palace when compared to both the first and second Normandy. Sure this ship (which I would get around to giving a proper name to at some point) lacked Voyager's comforts, but it was many times larger and a lot faster than that Starfleet ship had been.

Also this vessel was a true warship, not an explorer's vessel or a mere frigate, as such aside from being massive, it was far larger than the models in used in the show suggested, it was also heavily armed, well shielded, had decent armour, and even came with a ZPM. I felt a lot better about the idea of flying around this galaxy knowing that I had an arsenal of drone weapons capable of destroying a Wraith Hive ship in a single salvo.

Alas there were like sixty or so Hive Ships in the galaxy, not to mention cruisers, so even this ship couldn't take on the Wraith fleet directly, which meant we'd have to either take them on piecemeal or spend the next ten years avoiding them.

Peaceful co-existence with the Wraith was impossible, as they didn't tolerate the existence of advanced technology that wasn't their own, and they'd want to drain all the life energy out of my body. Since I liked having advanced tech and I also like having my life energy not being drained I would have to fight the Wraith.

Aside from the Wraith there other factions to worry about, such as the renegade Asgard, who didn't mind blowing up Stargates. Then there were the Asurans, and maybe the Genii, that could be a threat. Plus the Earth humans might be a problem as they could try to seize my ship, I needed plans for dealing with all of them.

At least the Asurans might not become an issue during my Jump as long as no one bothered them. They'd been minding their own business for the last ten thousand years and they could do so for ten thousand more years.

Allying with the Atlantis Expedition seemed like a good move, but it would have to be done early on, if I could find them before the US military came to the city's aid during the siege then I could deal with Weir from a position of strength at a time when she needed all the help she could get.

Once I had my foot in the door, so to speak, and the people of Atlantis came to depend on me for aid, then I could start to ulterlise the city's resources for my own needs, and I could get my hands on more awesome Ancient tech.

I was even considering pretending to be an Ancient, and claiming the city for myself, but I could foresee several issues with that. For starters the people already living there would fight me for it, and the city could be damage or even destroyed if I tried to seize it.

The corridor I'd been running down finally came to an end, and I was just about to go and rehydrate when I fell to my knees, covered my head, and screamed.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-Class Battleship. Space Dock.**

A concerned looking Cameron helped me into the chair, but she need not of bothered, nor did she need to be so concerned, as I was now feeling fine. But I could understand why she seemed worried.

She could protect me from attacks quite well, and even prevent me from injuring myself in many ways, however while she did have a great understanding of human biology she was no doctor, and as such health issues weren't something she could deal with.

Still I doubted there had been any long term damage, I'd just been overwhelmed with incoming information due to one of my perks.

 _Judgement Day - You automatically know the exact date and time to Judgement Day. Outside this jump, Judgement Day counts as any mass extinction or apocalyptic event for sapient species within 100 years and how, but not why, it happens. Because the future is not written, this perk will keep track of the event to the hour. So if the 2 year away apocalyptic event turned into 2 weeks and 3 hours, you will instantly know._

Until now this perk hadn't been of much use to me, Skynet having been easy to deal with, and I'd forgotten about it mostly. Then less than an hour ago information about hundreds of Judgement Days had been shoved into my head all at the same time. Cleary this perk had not been created to handle galactic wide apocalypses.

"So why did you collapse?" wondered an also worried looking Tali.

As we'd planned we were meeting in some sort of conference room. Everyone was currently preparing the ship for its mission, which would be to explore this galaxy and to fight the Wraith. This didn't just involve installing Trek tech, we also needed supplies, the right weapons, information, and to outfit some quarters so that they were more livable.

"I think the Atlantis expedition just woke up the Wraith, the timing seems about right" I told the women who were sitting around the table with me "And because of that over the next few years many words will culled, some more than once, this will destroy a lot of human civilizations, hundreds in fact, and because of the Judgement Day perk I know when the cullings will take place".

And that wasn't all.

"Sadly this information isn't a lot of help to us because while I do know which worlds are going to be culled and when, I don't know where those planets are in space, so we can't lay in ambush and attack Hives before they can start culling. The best we can do with this information is warn any human civilizations that we come across when exactly the Wraith will attack them" I said.

Oddly this perk hadn't become active while in the Trek galaxy despite the fact that some worlds must have been in extreme danger from groups like the Borg. I had no idea why this was the case.

"If you're feeling better then we should get on with the meeting" Seven of Nine suggested.

She seemed the least amount of concerned for me.

"By all means" I said.

Miranda reported first.

"I've made some of the crew quarters more livable" she informed us "I've put us in rooms close to each other, and we all get our own quarters. Cameron, I put you in the room across from Gothic's I know you don't need a bedroom, but you should have your own space".

Cameron had once done little more than follow me around, now she had her own interests, including hobbies, which she made time for while I was sleeping, as an alternative to watching me sleep.

"What about the upgrades?" I inquired.

Ancient ships were great and all, but the whole reason for going to the Trek verse, aside from wanting to recruit Seven of Nine as a companion, was because of that verse's advanced and varied technologies, it had always been my intention to make use of that technology on later Jumps.

"The tractor beams is already installed, we just need to test it" Tail let us all know "the transporter and the replicators will take a few more days, but we're in no rush".

This was true. We were due to make contact with Atlantis sometime within the year, and there was indeed no need to hurry. In fact it would be better if we made contact after Weir and her people learned that many Wraith Hives were heading their way. Then they would be more desperate for aid, and more likely to give into any demands I made.

While it might take us sometime to find Atlantis, the planets coordinates and gate address weren't in the ship's databanks for some reason, that didn't really matter as we would find it and in the meantime there was plenty of galaxy to explore, and many human cultures to interact with.

"There is little I can do with the sensors" Seven of Nine reported "As such in my role as science officer I have began compiling information on this galaxy and on the groups we may find ourselves interacting with".

Before anyone could say anything else the cyborg began the briefing.

"The Pegasus Galaxy is the name of a dwarf galaxy in the Local Group, located approximately three million light years from the Milky Way" she began by saying "There are actually two galaxies in the Local Group named Pegasus: Pegasus Dwarf Irregular Galaxy and Pegasus Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy. We are currently in the Pegasus Dwarf Irregular Galaxy".

I settled in for what could be a long, long meeting.

"The Pegasus Dwarf Irregular Galaxy (also known as Peg DIG or the Pegasus Dwarf), was discovered by A. G. Wilson in the 1950s" Seven was now saying "however Federation records have little else to say about this galaxy, and it is all speculative".

Hardly surprising as this galaxy was three million light years away Earth, an impossible journey to make using warp drive.

"In this universe we do know something of this galaxy" the former Borg drone went on to say "This was the galaxy the Ancients traveled to it in the City-ship Atlantis after they abandoned the Milky Way".

Leaving behind a Stargate network, and some dangerous tech they never bother to destroy, dismantle or hide away, even after becoming powerful energy beings.

"Much like in the Milky Way, they built a galaxy-spanning empire, but were forced to abandon it after most of the galaxy was conquered by the Wraith" Seven of Nine said next "Currently the majority of the human cultures in this galaxy are at low levels of development due to constant attacks by the Wraith, with early to mid twentieth century Earth technology being rare. There are also several cultures whose technology will be of interest to us, but usually such people are hiding from the Wraith as to avoid destruction".

Which would make it hard to trade tech with them, but at least trading with the more primitive human civilizations would be simple enough, with the Federation replicators we could produce vast amounts of clothes, food, simple medical supplies, basic tools, and precious metals. However few of the locals humans had much to offer aside from information. Sure I could buy the loyalty of their leaders easily enough, but again they had little to offer me.

I was pretty sure that I'd be able to unite many human worlds under any banner if I chose to raise, simply by pretending to be an Ancient, and with the technology at my command the more primitive humans of this galaxy would believe me, however I was unable to defend the people of this galaxy so any sort of empire that I tried to build would just be a target for the Wraith.

Still there might be some merit to building a coalition of planets. While I couldn't defend worlds, I could still help them to recover from cullings, and I could supply them with the stuff like medicine, perhaps even weapons. Given enough time I could give the people of this galaxy the means to protect themselves.

While I had no means of building a fleet of ships to fight the Wraith with I might not need to as the Wraith had awoken to galaxy that didn't have enough food to support them. As such it might be better to let the Wraith fight each other while arming the humans enough so that they could at least resist a culling.

It was something to think about, however in the short term, my group and I had a galaxy to explore, Ancient technology to recover, alliances to make, and of course I wanted to recruit more companions if possible.

"For millions of years, the Lantean society flourished, and they created a new Stargate network to facilitate travel" Seven was saying "However, things changed with the emergence of the Wraith. According to theory The Wraith evolved from the Iratus bug, a parasitic insect which fed on humans and incorporated aspects of their DNA into its genetic makeup".

I'd always wondered if that was true or not. Maybe the Ancients had actually created The Wraith, it wouldn't be the first time they created something which went onto endanger human lives on a galactic scale.

"While at first the Wraith were of no threat to the Lantean fleet, the Lanteans grew careless and allowed several of their ships to be captured. The Zero Point Modules which powered those ships, as one does ours, were used by the Wraith to power a cloning facility, and in short their forces vastly increased. This allowed them to overwhelm the Lanteans with sheer numbers, and soon the Lanteans were forced on the defensive".

And they were never able to seize the initiative, never able to go back on the offensive. This was a mistake I could not repeat.

"The Wraith fleet eventually conquered most of the galaxy, until Atlantis itself was all that remained. The Ancients defeated everything the Wraith threw at the city-ship, but still the Wraith would not give up, and continued sending endless waves of their forces at Atlantis. Lacking any other course of action, the remaining Ancients decided to submerge Atlantis and flee back to Earth, hoping that one day their kind would return".

Which in some sense they had since the humans of Earth were the second evolution of the Ancients, or something like that.

"Once the Ancients were gone, the Wraith took complete control of the galaxy" Seven told us "Not long after this, the Asurans, who were created by the Ancients to combat the Wraith, mounted their own assault".

The Asurans were best left alone if possible. But since it was likely that the people currently living in Atlantis would poke the bear so to speak, it was best to come up with a plan to deal with those machines. Taking out their planet with an overloaded ZPM was the only plan I had right now, however I should have time to come with something better. ZPMs were rare and for now I didn't have any spares to blow up.

"Somehow The Wraith devised a means to shut down the Asuran's attack directive, thereby causing the Asurans to retreat to their homeworld" Seven said "and they have remained there ever since".

Soon the cyborg now brought us onto the matter of the Wraith themselves.

"Any other races who were technologically advanced were either wiped out, had to abandon their advanced technology, or were forced to go into hiding. Including a group of rouge Asgard who we can discuss at a later date" Seven was now telling us "Over the next 10,000 years, the most if the Wraith would remain in stasis, only occasionally waking to cull the human populations of the galaxy for sustenance".

To me that didn't sound like much of a life for either the Wraith or the humans.

"As for The Wraith, they are a vampiric hive-based species that harvest the 'life-force' of other humanoid beings for nourishment through an organ which was on the palm of their right hands" Seven told us "As a species they have a social structure similar to that of ants or other hive/nest-based creatures, with distinct physiological differences between castes of Wraith, tailored to facilitate different functions within the society".

Like ants and bees they were ruled over a queen, and she alone did the breeding.

"They also possess powerful telepathic abilities that we don't know the extent of, as well phenomenal physical strength, along with superior agility as well as the ability to heal at a rate much faster than that of a human" Seven informed "This allows them to survive wounds that would kill most other humanoids".

This was less of an issue for us as we had weapons which could vapourise people. Even the Wraith couldn't heal that.

"Nourishment for the adult Wraith is the human "life force". Humans or very similar beings, such as Ancients and even other Wraith, are the only food source that can properly nourish a Wraith" we were informed "It is also unknown whether or not the Wraith require fluids, to facilitate other bodily functions".

At this point I let my mind wander while Seven kept talking.

(Line Break)

 **Holosuite. Cosmic Warehouse.**

The Cosmic Warehouse contained a small holosuite which Tali had installed within the warehouse during a time when Voyager was spending weeks crossing through a rather empty patch of space. During that time there had been very little to do, and she'd been rather bored to say the least.

It wasn't really necessary as Voyager had holodecks, but it hadn't taken that much effort to build and she was going to build another within the new shop as we might end with a use for it sometime in the future outside of simple rest and relaxation. Plus we had a ZPM so we had a lot of energy to call upon.

I'd been invited to join Miranda and Tali as they tried one of the holodeck programs we'd taken out Voyager's databanks. We'd all been working hard as we refitted the ship for what would hopefully be many years of adventure and exploration, as such we all needed some R&R. Well most of us did, Seven and Cameron didn't seem to care for fun.

This was a simulation of a beach front property, which was on a nice white sandy beach, and from my perspective it was hidden behind typical tropical beach foliage. The area had a nice calming breeze as the sun shined brightly in the blue sky.

After walking up to the beach front property, I knocked on the door to the wooden two story house, only to get no response.

"Well that's just great" I said to myself.

The holodeck wasn't even set up in that large of a room, and the simulation was only that of a small island yet somehow I wasn't able to find Tali or Miranda, and because I'd changed into swimming trunks before I'd entered the holodeck I had no scanning equipment with me. Which meant I'd have to track them down the old fashioned way.

This when I could hear the sound of women laughing and after some looking around I found two women laying on fold out beach chairs next to the ocean. Their pale bodies were soaking up the sunlight, and just for a moment I wondered if was possible to get sunburn when there wasn't really any sun.

I began to walk towards the women and when I got closer I was able to see the two of them in more detail. Miranda was in a black bikini and Tali, who was in her human form, wore a dark purple bikini. Their tops barely concealed their busty chests, and as for their lower halves, well their bikini bottoms left very little to the imagination.

"This is a nice place" I said, while enjoying the wind's cooling effect.

Trek shows don't do the holodeck justice, the simulations really do feel, smell and sound like the real thing. I could smell the ocean, feel the wind in my air, and even the sand between my toes felt right.

"It is amazing" Tali agreed as she move to lay on her back, showing her barely covered breasts as they jiggled with her movement "It's like we're on a real beach".

Miranda may have the better ass and tits out of the two, but Tali's human form was still super sexy.

"Gothic, would you put some sunblock on me?" Miranda requested while turning onto her stomach, showing me her sexy ass "I'm too lazy to do it myself".

She couldn't see my smile, but of course she didn't need to.

"Sure thing!" I said before slapping one of her butt cheeks.

"Jerk" Miranda said playfully, obviously enjoying the attention.

For the next ten minutes, I spread the lotion up and down Miranda's body, letting my hands do things and go places a normal masseuse would not go. I then asked Tali if she would like the same treatment and when she consented I did the same for her. I was sure that by the end of it all three of us were very horny, however we didn't take things any further. At least not yet.

"It's not going to be a great jump" Tali was currently saying, having been discussing the jump for a while now "We'll always have to live in fear of being hunted by the Wraith"

Miranda seemed a little displeased by Tali's lack of enthusiasm for this jump. However given that Tali was right about the danger I wondered if there was another reason why Miss Lawson was being grumpy at the engineer, perhaps she hadn't liked the fact that I stopped rubbing her down with suntan lotion so I could rub Tali's body.

"I'm about done" Miranda said, before grabbing her towel, and wrapping it around her body, as she got up "Anyone else?".

"Good idea, I'm cooking out here!" Tali said, soon following her fellow companion.

I also got up and followed them into the part of the Cosmic Warehouse which contained the apartments. Once inside I quickly grabbed a bite in the kitchen and then headed upstairs to Miranda's bedroom. I opened the door after knocking, and saw a topless Miranda pulling down her bikini thong.

"Oh hi, Gothic" she said

She pulled her thong down and walked over to the end to her room so that she could lean on the balcony that overlooked the garden, which was also part of the apartment complex that itself was within the Cosmic Warehouse. She acted as if it was natural for her to undress and be naked around me, and it was.

Miranda's bedroom had another window, and this one gave the illusion of having a great view. Currently the view was of some city I didn't recognise, and it was such an impressive sight that a person could be forgiven for thinking that a real city was right outside.

However the view outside didn't interest me much, I was much more interested in looking at something inside the room, and that was Miranda's naked body. I'd seen her naked plenty of times, but I still couldn't get enough of her.

Within moments I was turning her around and moving my arms down so that I could grab her ass cheeks. She looked down and smiled as she saw that my erection was very noticeable thanks to my swimming trunks. She very much enjoyed the fact that I found her so attractive.

She stepped back slowly and knelt down, before pulling down my trunks, an act which exposed my erection to the cool air of the apartment.

Miranda looked up at me and soon began to work her oral magic. This caused me to groan in delight as I felt my knees weaken. The warmth and gentle friction felt so good. Alas before long she took mycock out of her mouth with a slight popping sound,

"Let's take this to the bed" she suggested.

I laid on the bed as Miranda climbed on top of me so that we could do it cowgirl style. She began to ride me, letting out a few explosive cries of pleasure. Even after years of sleeping together she still took pleasure from having intercourse with me, and she knew exactly how to move her on body in a way to maximise the pleasure.

"Lie back and enjoy the ride" Miranda urged.

From this point on I was too busy having fun to even think.


	3. Chapter 3

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 3**

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

What science fiction doesn't tell you just how dull space exploration can actually be, most of the universe is empty, and even when you get to a solar system that doesn't mean that they'll be anything interesting there to explore. Most suns had something orbiting them, mostly lumps of rock, ice, sometimes gases, with some metals mixed in.

Not that this was really a concern, we had a whole galaxy to try to map, and many years to do in, and yet ten years might not be enough as while this galaxy was a fraction of the size of the Milky Way, dwarf galaxy or not, it was still a galaxy, and as such contained millions of stars.

However only a very small amount of those stars would have any habitable planets orbiting them, as such we would be spending a lot of time mapping lifeless worlds, while using our subspace scanners in an attempt to find something more interesting to go look at.

So far however our scanners weren't picking up any signs of intelligent life, such as radio signals, but this didn't mean there wasn't any nearby, this spacecraft was a warship not a science vessel, as such it didn't have the same kind of fancy long range sensors you find on a Starfleet ship or on Atlantis.

At least there wasn't much in the way of travel time between system, since this ship used hyperdive rather than warp as a means of propulsion, we were able to make short jumps from one solar system to another. Which didn't take very long when compared to using warp drive when travelling,

There were some upsides to this. For starters the lack of anything out there to distract us gave us all plenty of time to get on with our projects, and for me that mostly involved coming up with plans to deal with situations, some of which were from the show, while others were situations I was imagining that could happen.

Another advantage of all this free time was that Seven of Nine was able to gather information from stored files and used to give everyone briefings about the Wraith and other matters concerning the Pegasus galaxy.

Of course Cortana, the AI who lived in my omni-tool, for lack of a better term, could have easily put together some written reports for everyone, and I was sure she had. Still I did my best to pay attention to Seven as I wanted her to feel like a valued member of the group. Plus she seemed to enjoy giving these briefings, although given how rarely she expression emotion it was hard to tell.

Right now, as the ship drifted through yet a lifeless solar system, one with all planets lacking atmosphere of any kind, that orbited a red dwarf, we sat in the briefing room once again and listen to the former borg drone speak.

Today's subject was the Wraith ships that we might encounter.

"A Hive ship is a massive Wraith mothership capable of carrying thousands of Wraith along with their fighters and other support craft" Seven of Nine started by saying "Large parts of these ship's internal structures are used to house organic cocoons in which Humans may be stored for later feeding, and the Wraith themselves use something similar to hibernate while between cullings".

We didn't have a scale for the size of the Hive ships, but given how big this Aurora-class was I imagined that the Hives were truly massive. Also we didn't have any idea of how powerful their guns were, all how much punishment their hull armour could take. We did know that Hive ships were vulnerable to internal explosions, however it was likely that the Wraith would quickly work out a way to jam the transporters. To be fair that wasn't hard, I'd seen bad weather block our kind of transporters.

Which meant once we could no longer simply teleport bombs onto Wraith ships we'd have to slug it with them, and while a salvo of drones could make short work of even a Hive Ship we had a limited number of drones and no way to make more. At least not in anything approaching meaningful numbers.

"Despite their great size, Hive ships are capable of entering a planet's atmosphere and landing on a world's surface" Seven said.

Which really was very impressive given their sheer size and mass, I knew of much smaller vessels that couldn't even skim the atmosphere of a planet nevermind actually survive entry into an atmosphere.

"The hulls of Hive ships are composed of living, and growing, organic matter through the use of a unique type of biotechnology capable of growing at a rapid rate" the cyborg went of to say "This has afforded the Wraith Hive ship a number of advantages such as hull regeneration, providing them considerable protection in battles despite the fact that they lack any energy shielding system. However these organic hulls have an effect on their capacity to enter into hyperspace for extended periods of time as the Hive requires rest to heal the hull damage caused by hyperspace radiation. Therefore attacking a Hive Ship just as it leaves hyperspace will be an effective tactic".

Sure, but to do that we'd need to be able to know when a Hive Ship was about to leave hyperspace anywhere near us, although to be fair given all the fancy sensor tech we had and Seven's extensive knowledge, that might actually be possible.

"As Hive ships posses no true shields, then energy weapons should be considerably more effective against them" the former drone told us "Drone weapons are also capable of inflicting mass amounts of damage, being able to destroy a Hive in a single salvo. While the hull of Hive ships are known to regenerate, being organic in nature. However, the length of time required for this process is unknown".

Seven still had more to say on this subject.

"A Hive ship contains a hyperdrive unit, a device which allows the vessel to enter and exit hyperspace" the cyborg was now saying "However, unlike the Asgard or the Ancients, these hyperdrives are not intergalactic".

Our hyperdrive wasn't either, but the Ancients had purposely limited the hyperdrive on this class of vessel in case one was captured. Which was fortunate for the humans of the Milky Way galaxy.

"Wraith cruisers are typically seen when escorting Hive ships during assaults or when culling a Human world. Beyond this role, they are also seen in the role of patrol ships that are sent to investigate disturbances near Wraith territory" was what she was saying now "They are also sent alone against Human worlds in order to cull its inhabitants that are incapable of mounting a defense against the vessel. Similar to other Wraith vessels, they apparently do not possess shields and instead rely on their organic hull to protect them from damage. Wraith cruisers require a Wraith or someone with their DNA to pilot it".

So if I ever wanted to capture a Wraith ship for study I'd either need the cooperation of a Wraith or a human with some Wraith DNA, like say Telya. There were others like here, but it would impractical to track them down.

"They are known to carry Wraith Darts on them which are deployed in combat engagements "Seven said "though the exact number of Darts on a cruiser remains unknown at this time".

This lecture wasn't over yet.

"A Wraith scout ship is a relatively small vessel used by the Wraith. Larger than the Wraith Dart and Puddle Jumper, the vessel functions in a role similar to Starfleet runabouts, serving as a scout, shuttle, and even as cargo vessels" the cyborg let us know "The craft might be hyperspace capable, but it is unknown what sort of range it has. It is unknown if it requires a Wraith to pilot the vessel, much as how the Wraith Hive ships require a Wraith to interact with the neural interface".

Perhaps one day we'd find out. I did after all want to capture some Wraith for study, and one of their small starships would do nicely.

"Wraith supply ships are vessels which carry cocooned humans to other parts of the Wraith fleet. They are usually used when the Wraith are in a long battle, and need to be resupplied with humans to feed upon" Seven of Nine told us before changing the currently displayed picture "The primary role of a Dart is the culling of humans to provide the Wraith with their food supply. They are small enough to fit through Stargates and are most often dispatched from a Hive ship which carries hundreds of Darts, stored in large hangar bays. Wraith cruisers also house Darts, but it is unknown how many such a ship carries. During a culling, the Darts make use of their transport beams to capture as many humans as possible, which are later re-materialized on the Hive ships or other locations".

Well that was something to avoid

"Darts are also used as fighters deployed against other ships of similar size, or to attack a bigger target in large swarms or to protect their mothership".

Not for the first, and it sure wouldn't be the last, time I zoned out as Seven kept talking.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

The door which led to personal quarters made a noise which I knew came from the Ancient version of a doorbell. It wasn't exactly late since stuff like night and day didn't mean much in deep space, but I was tried, it had been a long day full of rather dull exploration and yet more meetings about this galaxy.

When the chiming noise filled the air for the second time I set down the data padd I'd been reading and got my head up off Cameron's lap, which had been serving as cushion, considering that she most made of metal she was surprisingly comfortable to lie on.

"Enter!" I called out.

The door slide open to show, Seven of Nine, the woman I helped rescue from the Borg a few years ago. The cyborg stepped into what passed for the captain's cabin on this massive warship. It was a large space, but as of yet I hadn't taken the time to personalise it.

No doubt I'd take trophies and souvenirs scattered all over the place once we had made contact with human civilizations and had battled some bad guys. During my time in the Delta Quadrant I'd collected many years, as well as other odds and ends, most of which were now in storage, or back on Voyager as I'd not packed everything.

By now Seven had noted my own state of undress and the fact that Cameron was alone with me while also not fully dressed, it wasn't hard to deduce what she was thinking. She was however wrong. I had just been relaxing.

"Excuse me, Captain. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I'll return in.."

I was now confused about something

"Captain?" I asked.

Seven paused from backing out of the room.

"You are a navy officer in command of a ship" she said

Any naval officer who commanded a ship was always addressed by naval custom as "captain" while in command, regardless of his or her actual rank, even though technically an officer of below the rank of captain is more correctly titled the commanding officer, or C.O. Back in my days on the Normandy, Shepard had never used the title even when in command of the Normandy, but she could have. For some reason Starfleet made use of this custom despite not being an actual space navy.

"That's all right, Seven," I said before she could leave. "What's the matter?"

Seven wore her usual uniform, a gray suit that fit every curve of her body. I'd spent far too much time admiring her form when she wore this kind of outfit.

"I wished to discuss with you my fulfilment of our agreement" the cyborg told me "You have lived up to your side of the bargain, now I must do the same".

Seven of Nine took a deep breath.

"I have never experienced anything sexual" she then said.

To be fair I'd been expecting this at some point. For most of her life, Seven of Nine had been a drone whose personal needs were completely ignored by the Borg collective. To go from that to a member of a sort of harem had to be a bit overwhelming.

Still, it was surprising to think that she'd never experimented sexually. Any number of men and women on Voyager would have been happy to oblige her. And stranded in the Delta Quadrant as we had been, a certain degree of fraternization had to be tolerated. Although thinking on it I couldn't recall her getting close to anyone other than myself during her time on that ship.

"Take off your clothes" I ordered.

For a moment Seven showed no reaction. Then her lips began to curl into what I guess to be the beginning of a smile.

"Yes, Gothic," she said.

I watched as Seven slipped out of her suit. And for a moment I considered trying to record this, but I figured that this might be a bit much for the former drone, she was after already stripping into front of two people.

Seven soon unfastened the functional and very utilitarian bra she wore, and then slid her plain panties down her long legs. Once that was done she stood in front of me as if presenting her naked body for inspection. Cameron paid the scene no mind, which wasn't odd as Cameron rarely cared for anything anyone else other than me did, at least when it didn't threaten me.

Her breasts were bigger than I had expected, and her nipples were already stiff. Her skin was pale, and she kept her pussy bare. Her muscular legs looked as if they could run a marathon and then squeeze the life out of anyone who got between them.

"Am I—attractive?" Seven asked.

"Seven, you're beautiful" I replied

I could tell that I would need to take charge here.

"Come sit down"

Seven obediently followed my instructions, and as soon as I got my hands on Seven's body I began gently squeezing her tits.

"Do you like that?" I asked her.

"It is . . . pleasant." Seven told me, sounding somewhat nervous. "Very pleasant."

I was pleased by how large and firm they were, they weren't as big as Miranda, but they were more perky. I spent some time getting a good feel for them, and the former drone seemed to enjoy every moment of it. However as fun as it was to play with her jiggly parts, I did have more to explore. Seven moaned as slipped a finger inside her cunt, she was tight and very wet, and hot down there to.

"You like that, Seven?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Affirmative" she then said.

Her dirty talk would need some work.

"Then I think you'll like this" I told her.

Slowly but firmly, I slid two fingers inside her pussy. Seven gasped again, and she began moving her body. I fingered her as Cameron watched us, she seemed mildly interested in what I was doing, but not all jealous. To her Seven and I might as well have been playing a game of chess.

"I've never felt like this before" the former borg drone admitted.

"You've never masturbated?" I asked.

To make it easier for the cyborg to answer I stopped moving my fingers.

"I researched the techniques, but until now I've never felt the desire to be touched" she told me.

Upon hearing that I got back on with things.

"Gothic?"

"Yes, Seven?"

"Would it be appropriate to . . . reciprocate?" she questioned.

I would like that.

"Yes, Seven, that would be more than appropriate" I told her.

Seven stood up on wobbling legs and turned to watch as I took off what little clothing I had been wearing. I had nothing to be shy about as thanks to the body mods offered by the Jump Chain and the genetic engineering supplied by the Alliance I had a very fit looking body, with a larger than average penis, something the former drone commented on.

"May I touch it?" she then asked.

I sat back down and Seven got onto her knees

"Fortunately, my research into human sexual techniques has given me the knowledge I need" the human woman said next "And your obvious arousal should make up for any deficiencies in my technique".

With that the cyborg got to work and began jerking me off, her hands were soft and the view of her tits from this angle was very enjoyable. I found myself spending some time simply staring, I only stopped when I got close to climaxing.

"Are you about to experience an orgasm, Gothic?" she asked.

The former borg drone didn't need a verbal answer as I soon shot my load, getting most of it on her huge boobs.

"That's enough. For now" I told her.

"Was that adequate, Gothic" Seven wondered "I am prepared to make another attempt if-".

I would need some time to recover.

"No that was great" I assured Seven "And I think that was enough for today. There's no need to rush".

Seven got up and went to recover her clothes, but she was in no rush to dress.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"I have located something on the long range sensors" reported Seven of Nine as I entered the auxiliary control room "I was fine tuning the scanners to better detect subspace signals when I discovered an repeating signal of some sort coming from a nearby system. It is very weak, in fact if I not been examining different subspace frequencies it would have gone unnoticed".

The auxiliary control room lacked one of those chairs people with the Ancient gene could use to control pretty much everything, but it was a quiet working space, so it wasn't shocking to find 7 of 9 down here. Despite her recent growth as a person she still wasn't very sociable.

I was sure that Tali would get around to building an astrometrics lab for Seven, complete with a galaxy map, but while the robot crew could maintain and repair existing systems without aid Tali still had to install everything. For now the transporters and replicators were important.

Seven played the message, if it could be called that, and it was clearly not a natural sound. It was also extremely weak, I was surprised that we'd picked it up at all, but Seven had been able to fine tune the sensors if just a little.

"I'll set a course for the source of the signal" I informed Seven.

With that I headed for the door, but before I left I turned to look at the former borg drone.

"Good work" I praised.

Her response to this was a slight nod and nothing else.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Mere moments before the ship exited hyperspace I made my way onto the bridge and soon I was in the captain's chair, this seat didn't give me the level of control over the ship that the other chair did, but it didn't need since I did have a crew to help me fly this vessel.

However it would be a simple matter for me to head down to the control chair room. It was some distance away, but recently we'd discovered that this vessel did have a few transporters like on Atlantis, which allowed a person to quickly move to different parts of this massive craft.

Control chairs were chiefly used for launching Ancient drone weapons, but they were also capable of displaying various charts, cross-referencing the desired chart from the user's mind with the file stored in the chair's computer. Control chairs were also believed to be able to network with Puddle Jumpers, allowing the user in the chair to remotely pilot them for kamikaze missions and the like.

The device was not simple to operate. In fact, it requires a considerable amount of concentration even for some who possesses the Ancient gene naturally. Those with Dr. Carson Beckett's Ancient gene therapy can also operate the technology, but not as well.

"I'm detecting both a L and M class planet in this system" Seven of Nine reported "The distress signal is coming from the L class planet. I am also detecting a large artificial object. It appears to be in a powered down state. I do not believe it is a ship. Perhaps it is a space station of sorts".

This system seemed worth our attention, and how could it not be with two habitable planets and signs of an advanced civilization.

"On screen" I ordered.

As soon as I saw it, I knew what is was.

"Full scan" was my next command.

This was one of the powerful weapons platforms which long ago had protected the Lantean System from Wraith invaders. Once there had been many, but now only one satellite, which was disabled, had survived the ten thousand-year gap between civilizations which occupied the great city of Atlantis.

The satellite was not powered by a Zero Point Module, nor was it armed with drones and pulse cannons like my ship. Instead it used something like a laser to slice through enemy vessels, it could one hit kill a Wraith Hive Ship.

"My scans show that the weapon's platform does not have life support, and the technology is damaged, but it should be repairable" I heard Seven say "Your files mentioned this device. I would like to beam over with Tali'Zorah and conduct an investigation before we consider enacting your plan".

I'd considered what do if we found the weapons platform before the people of Atlantis were able to fix it up. Seven and Tali should be able to fix it up, and install a cloaking device so that the platform would remain hidden until it was needed. We could even add a shield, but this would drastically increase the power requirements, meaning that we'd have to instal another power source. This was doable, but it would take time. Hopefully the Wraith would take their time in attacking Atlantis, as they did in the show.

"Okay, but take the runabout" I told Seven "Then once you've finished you can catch up with the rest of us".

I took a moment to consider what to do next.

"There's no rush to get to Atlantis" I was now saying "I want to examine that crashed Wraith ship. If I remember correctly one of crew is still alive. We need samples of Wraith and their technology so I'll go and recover some".

This was when Seven checked the sensors again, extending the range so that I could see more of this system.

"There's Atlantis" I said, while gesturing to an energy signature which was on the ocean of the M class planet "And those human life forms on the mainland must be Teyla's people. Athosians I think they are called".

Not that it mattered. A group of primitive hunter/gatherers were of little worth to me. Not unless they were willing to act as guides, and give me the gate addresses as well as information on other worlds.

"I will see you later" was all Seven said as she left the bridge.

While Tali was spending most of her time in what passed for main engineering on this ship and such didn't come to the bridge often, Miranda and Cameron were both here. Of course Cortana, the AI who inhabited my omni-tool was always with me, but her ability to interact with this vessel was very limited, the result of some sort of safety measure like the need for the gene.

Cameron didn't say or do much while on the bridge, since there was nothing for us to shoot at, however Miranda was a bit more talkative.

"So you want to explore a crash alien spaceship that may or not have a dangerous survivor on board" Miss Lawson was saying "You never change do you".

Should I change?

"I'll be going with you" Cameron insisted "Miranda will stay here and keep a transporter lock on you at all times. You'll be wearing full armour, and you will keep your force field on at all times".

When it came to my wellbeing, Cameron didn't take any chances, thankfully she'd never tried to completely keep out of harm's way, instead focusing her efforts on lessening dangers as best she could.


	4. Chapter 4

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 4**

 **Infirmary. Atlantis.**

Well I'd made it to the City of the Ancients, and much sooner than I'd expected. There had even been a chance for me to get involved in one of their adventures. Granted there hadn't been much excitement for me, as I had the habit of dealing with dangerous situations as quickly and safely as possible.

The L class planet, which was home to a crashed Wraith ship and a lone survivor, had also been playing host to Major Shepard and a small team of science types. My ship had entered orbit in time to save one of the eggheads, who'd just been fed upon. He was currently in stasis, waiting for some sort of treatment. It might be years before someone came up with a treatment, but that was okay the science guy would be perfectly preserved in a stasis pod. Alas one of the smart people had been fed upon, and there was nothing I could do for him.

I'd also beamed up the Wraith who'd been stuck on that planet for the last ten thousand ro so years into my ship's brig. He was going to stay there until I decided what to do with him. To be extra safe I'd ordered to door to the brig to be welded shut, it was just safer to beam people in and out of the brig than risk a force field failing. That had happened more than once while on Voyager, and the results of the failure had never been pretty.

"This shouldn't take too long" Doctor Carson Beckett was currently telling me "I just need to take a few scans, and once I can give you a clean bill of health we'll see about getting you that meeting with Doctor Weir".

Given that I'd arrived in orbit of this world in an Ancient warship there was no doubt in my mind that Beckett was going to check my DNA for the ATA gene, and he would find it, and he would discovered that I was genetically engineered.

All this would prove was that I'd been telling the truth when I'd claimed to be an advanced human. Which I was when compared to the humans of this universe, not counting the Ancients.

Of course the only reason I'd consented to this was because it gave me, well actually it gave Cortana, the chance to hack into the medical files Beckett kept. Not only would I soon have medical information on everyone here on Atlantis, as well as data they'd gathered from autopsies on the Wraith, I would also have access to Beckett's gene therapy.

I didn't need it myself, and given Miranda's level of genetic engineering, it might be dangerous to alter her genes further, but Seven and Tali, while she was in her human form, might benefit from it. We'd have to wait and see.

"Take your time" I said to the medical person "I have plenty of it".

Ten years to be exact.

 **(Line Break)**

 **Stargate Operations. Atlantis.**

The scottish doctor entered Weir's office, and before the door closed behind him he heard her voice.

"Carson, what have you found about our... visitor?" she asked.

The doctor noticed that she seemed confused about this situation and he couldn't blame her. No one had been expecting an Ancient warship to suddenly turn up, and while the Captain of the vessel had plainly stated that he was no Ancient, that didn't really make him less of a mystery.

"Physically he is fine, I would say that better than fine" Carson asked "A little too healthy in fact, no genetic defects, no viruses that I can detect, and he's in great shape in terms of fitness. I plan to ask him to allow me to do some further tests, but what I can tell you is that he's been genetically engineered, and he has the Ancient gene. As far as I can tell it wasn't introduced via a retrovirus, he has it naturally. Although given the genetic engineering he's undergone I can't be totally certain of that, but I am certain that he is human, and from Earth".

Carson took a moment to gather his thoughts.

"I don't really have anything to compare him to, he could be an Ancient despite what he says, but he also could be a human that received some "alterations" to his body" the doctor said next.

Weir put her hands on the desk and intertwined them, she too needed a moment to collect her thoughts.

"What about the woman who teleported down with him?" Weir asked. "She seemed odd".

Carson understood why someone might think that way.

"That young lady is in a fact a robot of some kind" Beckett explained "Organic tissue on the outside, but under the surface she's a machine. Rodney told me that the technical term is cyborg. She seems to be a bodyguard of some sort, she kept very close eye on me while I examined our visitor".

It wasn't exactly standard practice to have all visitors to the city undergo and medical exam, in this case it had been wise as it had gotten them a lot of information.

"I will hold a meeting in an hour in the conference room with him, I want you there" Weir decided "If nothing else he's already met you".

Carson saw no problem with this.

"I understand, If you need me before then I'll be in the infirmary" he said.

With that Carson left the room, leaving a thinking Weir alone in her office.

(Line Break)

 **Stargate Operations. Atlantis**

An hour after letting the chief medical officer poke and prod me I was walking through the corridors with Carson and two security guards towards the meeting room. The halls were empty, even the command center had only had a few people in it, yet it was day, the light streaming in through the windows was proof of that.

"Weird" I muttered.

Cameron also seemed bothered by something. The lack of people around was worrying, maybe they were being kept out of the way for some reason. I figured that it could be me that they were worried about.

"You'd think they'd be more welcoming given that you saved three of their people" she commented.

Well I knew that Rodney Mckay and John Shepard would have been okay as there been a Puddle Jumper nearby containing another team, but they hadn't known that.

The meeting room was the same as in the series, a semi circular table were Weir, Sheppard and Mckay were sitting, the last one had a notebook computer. Maybe he was taking notes or had some sort of scan going. No doubt he was interested in the armour I wore, and the gadgets I had on my person. I didn't have any weapons with me, I hadn't bothered to bring any since I knew that they would have been confiscated anyway. Not that I was in much danger, I had my kinetic barrier up, and Miranda was monitoring me, should I called for help she'd beam both me and Cameron back up to the ship.

I moved towards the center of the room with Carson at my side. Meanwhile the two guards stayed outside, as did Cameron for reasons of her own. Once the doors were closed Weir spoke

"Hello, my name is Elizabeth Weir, I'm the leader of the Atlantis expedition. To my right is John Sheppard, second in command and to my left is Rodney Mckay the Chief science officer, and you've already met Dr Carson our Chief medical officer" she said while Carson moved towards an empty chair "Now in your message you mentioned that you have information vital to the survival of this city".

Before coming down I'd finally decided to tell the people of Atlantis most of the truth. They weren't quite as advanced as Trek humans, who were used to dealing with higher powers messing about with people, but they did have some experience in that department.

"As I already told you Doctor Weir" I started by saying "I have access to information about the past, present and future. I've seen what could happen, and what has happened".

That was pretty vague, but I couldn't just come out and tell them that they were a TV show, at least not right away. For now my plan was to stick with me being an advanced human who'd been given access to an Ancient warship and a lot of technology by an ascended being.

Somewhere down the line the truth might come out, most likely when someone figured out that I possessed technology out of Star Trek, and if Voyager was a TV show in this universe one of the nerds here would recognise Seven of Nine, but that was a concern for later.

"Do you have a way to prove if what you saw is true?" asked Doctor Weir.

Indeed I did.

"I think so" I said to them after deciding to give them a bone "To start with there is some kind of abandoned mobile drilling platform somewhere on the ocean's floor. Once my science officer gets back I can give you the exact location of it".

This time It was Mckay who spoke

"What kind of platform?" he asked.

While I didn't remember what the platform did exactly, I did recall what happened in the show when it was found. A Wraith Queen would wake up, and nearly destroy Atlantis by having her crashed cruiser blow itself up, the cruiser was resting on an unstable part of the sea bed if I remembered correctly. Dealing with that should be simple since I had transporters. My people would just need to beam into the cruiser and prevent its reactor from overloading. Beaming in something like a load of nerve gas should kill the queen without causing the cruiser to explode.

"I think that It had something to do with energy generation" I replied.

That seemed to peak his interest, he looked as if he wanted to know everything right now, and I didn't doubt that he had a million questions, but Weir didn't let him ask.

"I know that there are at least two ships like mine out there, maybe three" I informed the room "Atlantis should have some kind of detector that will allow you to find them, but that might have to wait until you get a ZPM".

Since my space dock couldn't fit another Ancient warship within it I had no interest in going after them. Perhaps if I knew where there was a smaller Ancient vessel that I'd known about I would go after it, but that wasn't of much interest to me as I didn't have anyone else with the ATA gene.

Wraith ships also required a person to have special DNA in order to fly them, so they were also of little interest to me. It was unlikely that Teyla would aid me in that project given how closely she was allied with the Atlantis expedition.

"So you say that two more ships of Ancient design out there?" John Shepard asked.

I nodded.

"If you do find one floating in space on the long range scanners I don't mind ferrying some of your people so you can go check it out" I offered.

Weir spoke next.

"Well we can check that out later" she stated "For now I'd like to discuss what it is you want, and what you can offer us".

As expected this took some time. I had lots of things to offer, food, medical supplies, protection, and information. Of course before long matters turned to the fact that the Wraith were on their way. This city needed to be defended, and my lone ship wasn't going to be able to do that. They needed ZPMs and I wasn't going to give up the only one I had.

In return for my aid I wanted Seven to be able to study the Ancient tech here, and for these people to share information with me.

"We will need to discuss this before we decide what to do" Weir said, once I had made my offer "If you'll excuse us"

The doors opened once more, and a few moments later I was beaming back up to my ship.

(Line Break)

 **Stargate Operations. Atlantis**

It took them almost two hours to discuss things, but in the end they decided to accept my offer, maybe because they were afraid of the Wraith more than me or maybe they truly thought that I was telling the truth, which I was in a sense.

Of course they couldn't afford not to accept my aid, but they didn't want to appear desperate either, hence why they'd made me wait for two hours.

"First things first" I said "I'll activate the pedestal"

"A pedestal?" someone asked.

A new voice appeared and when I turned I saw Radek I think his name was.

"We never encountered a pedestal".

Upon hearing that I headed down towards the gate.

"You don't have to believe me, just follow" I told them.

I was followed by the two security guards, not that they were needed, and they couldn't have stopped me anyway, their weapons wouldn't get past my defences, and Cameron wouldn't let them try.

"Hold on, it should be somewhere here" I said.

In the show the Ancient captain just stepped forward and the pedestal appeared so it simply should activate with a mental command. When it did everyone gathered around as I interfaced with the device.

It turned out to be device that allowed an Ancient to lock down a city-ship. Logically it should have required me to be some sort of military officer or civilian leader in order to have this authority, but the gene seemed to be enough. I could only assume that the city's computer systems were aware that the Ancients were gone. Or maybe the gene was enough, it wouldn't be surprising the Ancients had never been any good at securing their stuff.

As was part of its function, the machine instantly disconnected any foreign devices (such as non-Ancient computers and monitors) which were interfaced with the city, and reactivated many of the Ancient displays and control systems that until now had been offline. I could feel them coming online, much like how I could feel systems on my ship, only this was a bigger and even more complex scale.

Thankfully my head wasn't a standard human one, gene and body mods aside I possessed the Prothean cipher, and that species had made use of mental interfaces as well, like their beacons. As such I had some experience using technology this way.

The device also disabled system administration privileges used by city's present occupants and granted me command of the city. Most of the city's system, those that could function without a ZPM, were now under my command. If I'd wanted to I could have locked all the doors, shut down everything outside of the command centre, and then let Cameron deal with the guards while I beamed in some robots.

However as tempting as that was taking control of the city wasn't practical, and it would be foolish. I had a ship which was working and more importantly it was mobile, unlike Atlantis which was a sitting duck right now. Besides even if I did take the command centre, these folks had a habit of beating the odds, they'd find a way to retake control, and I would be worse off than before.

"I'm unlocking the system and returning control to you" I informed a worried looking Doctor Weir.

The lights went off and then on again, and before long someone reported that their computers were coming back on line. I waited for a little bit of time as Mckay checked things out, and he told Weir that systems he hadn't even known about were now running.

Once all that was done a very concern looking Weir made me realise that I should leave the city for a while. I'd overstayed my welcome.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"How's it going?" I asked Tali as I walked into the part of the ship she was using as her own workshop "Need any help?".

As part of our deal with Atlantis, which involved the sharing of information and resources in exchange for information about the Ancient tech being discovered in the city, my group had agreed to supply the people in the city with weapons to fight the Wraith.

P-90s were deadly weapons against humans, but it took a lot of bullets to kill a Wraith, and Weir's people had limited supplies of ammo. While I had replicated plenty of ammo for them, and already beamed it down, in the long I figured it was just better to give them more powerful guns.

However I didn't want to give them energy weapons, or Mass Effect guns, as those could overwhelm our kinetic barriers and our environmental shields, and I wasn't getting enough of this deal to make it worth the risk. So this was why Tali was building coilguns that were more powerful than P-90s without being a great risk to us.

A coilgun or Gauss rifle was a type of projectile accelerator consisting of one or more coils used as electromagnets in the configuration of a linear motor that accelerated a ferromagnetic or conducting projectile to high velocity. In almost all coilgun configurations, the coils and the gun barrel are arranged on a common axis.

Despite sometimes being called Gauss rifles, they weren't rifles at all as the barrel of the weapons are not rifled. As for the "Gauss" part that was in reference to a Carl Friedrich Gauss, who formulated mathematical descriptions of the magnetic effect used by magnetic accelerator cannons.

Most coilguns were rather harmless, much like a typical air gun and an order of magnitude less deadly than a firearm, but most coilguns were made at home, and with basic materials. Tali was using materials far in advance of those available to average people in the early part of the 21st century.

"Well I have a coilgun with hypersonic muzzle velocity" she reported "I'm just making some more improvements".

Hearing this didn't surprise me. Quarians, even when in human form, had great skill with technology, and Tali had access to the kind of tools most Quarians could only dream of owning. The downside to this was that she kept tinkering with machines trying to improve upon them when they already worked fine. Most likely this was because for most of her life she'd had to make do with what little she had, which had prevented her from exploring all the ideas she had for improvements to what she built.

"We need to keep the coilguns as simple as possible" I reminded the brilliant engineer "They'll need weapons they can repair and maintain without our help".

I was sure the people living in Atlantis didn't want to become dependant on us, and I didn't want them to become dependant on me as once the siege was over I intended to go back to exploring this galaxy.

That exploration should be far more fruitful in the future since we now star maps taken from Atlantis's databanks. Granted they were ten thousand years out of date, but for the most part things like stars and planets don't change much in just a hundred centuries.

"Well I could just replicate my prototype and then send some improved models later for use in the upcoming siege" Tali'Zorah decided.

I smiled.

"That's my girl" I praised.

She just smirked and went back to work.

(Line Break)

 **Stargate Operations. Atlantis.**

Before the doors closed I saw some guards positioning themselves outside the meeting room.

"Huh, I never saw that in the series" I muttered to myself.

Mckay was the first to start talking, no surprises there.

"We have several Wraith ships incoming" he was saying "They will be here in two weeks".

I was sure that in the show it had taken the better part of a year for the Wraith to arrive at Atlantis because they hadn't been in any rush. Yet only a couple of months had passed since I'd nearly collapsed when the Wraith did awaken on mass. Since then they'd culled plenty of worlds, but it should have taken them longer to get here.

This was when I had the worrying notion that they were aware of my ship, if so, they might mistakenly believe that the Ancients were back. That explain why they were in such a rush to get here. This was bad as I'd expected to have a lot more time to prepare.

"So recommendations?" was Weir's question.

"Other than panic?" Beckett asked

"Other than panic, yes" Weir answered before turning to me "Do you know anything apart from the drones that could be used to defend the city?".

Indeed I did.

"Well, If the ZPM that the Brotherhood gave me is full, then it will give you enough power to raise the shield, you could withstand bombardment for days" I said.

The original Brotherhood was a group of fifteen monks whose sole occupation was to keep the Potentia safe, until the Ancients returned to reward them for safeguarding it. The group consisted of a master handler, five protectors and nine stone carriers.

The Quindosim's greatest fear had been that the entire brotherhood might one day be culled, which would result in the Potentia going missing, as only they knew its true location. Because of this The Brotherhood created nine stone markers which, when combined, would reveal the location of their treasure.

The original Brotherhood was in fact destroyed by a Wraith culling, but they'd survived long enough to hide the Potentia (the proper name for a ZPM). Their work was eventually continued by a woman called Allina, who the new master handler of the Potentia, when it was recovered.

Like in the show this new Brotherhood had taken the ZPM once it had been recovered, but in this timeline I'd be able to convince them that I was an Ancient. The Ancients, who were called the Ancestors by the people native to this galaxy, were only known in legend and those legends they had special powers. A quick demonstration of my biotic abilities had convinced them to had over the Ancient power source.

I had to reward the Brotherhood for their long service, but that turned out to be pretty easy as all they'd wanted, aside from protection from the Wraith, which I couldn't give, was aid for their people. Which thanks to my replicators I was easily able to supply.

"Then what?" Ford asked "The shield isn't going to last forever".

True, but there wasn't much I could do about that. ZPMs didn't exactly grow on trees, and I wasn't going to give up mine.

"My people have been able to restore the Ancient weapons platform" I informed the senior staff "They've installed a cloaking device and a shield. The plan is to keep the platform cloaked until the Hive Ships are in range, then it will drop the cloak, fire and raise a shield. Which should protect the weapon long enough for it to recharge. However I don't know how long the shield will last, and the weapon will be vulnerable when it fires".

Since Star Trek was a TV show in this universe I'd kept Seven of Nine out of sight, which she didn't mind as she wasn't a sociable person in any case. Besides there had been plenty to keep her busy. There was a lot of information for her to go over, and she had things to investigate, such as the crashed Wraith supply ship.

"There's something that I have been thinking about" Mckay was now saying "It's about sending a message to the SGC".

That got people's attention.

"You said that we couldn't use the Stargate" Doctor Weir stated.

"No, but we could use the gate to send a message and with the new ZPM, we could send someone, there would just be no way for them to get back" he said "and we'll need all the power we can get for the shield, meaning we wouldn't send too many people".

The meeting went on for a little longer, but there wasn't much to say so before long Weir dismissed everyone. I stood up and was ready to go, when Weir told me to stay, she didn't start talking until everyone was out and the doors were close once more. I had no idea what she wanted and I was interested in finding out.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"The meeting last longer than expected" Miranda commented as I beamed back onto the ship "What does Weir want now".

While our transporter was based on Starfleet technology, it had been made using Ancient tech and by a Quarian engineer, as such the transporter effect looked visually different than in the TV show. As such it should still be unknown to the people of Atlantis that we had Trek technology.

As for Weir, she was a very shrewd woman, so far she'd been able to ensure that her people got far more out of this alliance than mine did. It was a good thing for them that I was determined to keep Atlantis in one piece.

"She wanted to discuss the possibility of using this ship to evacuate everyone on Atlantis back to Earth" I told Miss Lawson "I explained that our hyperdrive couldn't make the journey, so she's handed over information on Atlantis's hyperdrive, which could make the journey, and she's offered help with upgrading the drive should her people end up on our ship. We could fit them all, the ship is designed to carry hundreds of people".

I was worried that they might try to take over the ship once they found out that my crew were pretty much just robots, and while Weir wouldn't do so cheerfully, I was sure she'd find some way to morally justify it to herself and her people.

Because of this I'd asked for time to think things through. Thankfully we still had a couple of weeks before the Wraith arrived.

"I'll need some time to think about" I said to Miranda "for now let's focus on the Hives heading this way".

Hopefully there was something we could do about them.


	5. Chapter 5

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 5**

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

There was plenty of space on board my massive warship, and former Borg drone known as Seven of Nine was taking full advantage of that fact by having just set up another science lab. Clearly this lab was dedicated to the study of small scale weaponry, this was easy to tell as there were many held held weapons scattered all over the room.

Some were in pieces, and hopefully she could put them back together as they were all unique, at least in this reality, while others were being kept in display cases, a few were inside machines of some kind, which I assumed were being used to take detailed scans of the devices.

This lab involved research of a kind different to what Seven often got up to, normally she liked to study stuff like cosmic phenomena, and sometimes people, as part of her efforts to advance towards perfection. Until now she'd never shown much interest in weapons, unlike Cameron, who was already taking a look around, and myself.

I not only liked to study and create weapons, I also liked to fire them as well as collect them, my Cosmic Warehouse was filled with boxes which mostly contained weapons that I'd gathered during my time in the Delta Quadrant. Of course I'd also gathered lots of information which was stored on Prothean data discs, as well odd bits of technology that could come in handy one day.

The weapons currently being studied by Seven came from many cultures and a few different universes. Mostly she was studying Wraith weapons with the intent of coming up with some sort of defence.

If we, and by that I meant she, could come with some easily to produce body armour that could absorb the energy of Wraith weapons, that would be a big help for the people in Atlantis. My group didn't need to worry about that so much as our environmental shields would offer us some protection against Wraith stunners, as long as we didn't stand around letting ourselves get shot.

"I have began studying Wraith technology" Seven of Nine informed me, once she acknowledged my presence "However I have not been able to learn much as Wraith technology is biological in nature, and I do not have much experience with biotech".

Many pieces of Wraith technology, including their ships, were a hybrid of organic and mechanical parts with the ability to heal damage. How this worked, or even why the Wraith would bother to develop this technology given its disadvantages, were total mysteries to us. Although there must be some reason. However given how little the Wraith were understood we might never figure it out.

The cyborg directed my attention to a Wraith weapon, which was a counter next to many tools, I wasn't sure if she been taking it apart or performing an autopsy.

She must have recovered this stunner from the crashed Wraith supply ship, this meant the weapon was more than ten thousand years old, and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that it had been working order until Seven had started dissecting it.

"This is a Wraith blaster, a hand-held versions of the larger Wraith stunner, which is used by their warrior caste" Seven began by saying "They are typically carried by commanders, such as the one we have in custody, and other high ranking Wraith".

A Wraith Commander was a high-ranking Wraith like Todd. I wasn't sure, but I suspected that the commanders all had tattoos on their faces as some kind of rank insignia, it was unlikely to be for decoration as the Wraith didn't seem to have any art. Not all of the Wraith who weren't of the warrior cast had these markings, so I assumed that they were of a lower rank.

The Wraith who I was calling "The Defiant One", who was currently in a cell, had to be a high ranking commander of some kind, although if he was it seemed odd that he'd been on a supply ship. Also he seemed to belong to a different era judging by how differently he was dressed. "The Defiant One" wore armour, when other Wraith simply wore dark clothing. From what I remembered in the show, he was much tougher than other Wraith too.

I could have asked "The Defiant One" why he was different from the other Wraith, but I doubted he would tell me, and even I had been willing to torture him, which I wasn't, I wasn't foolish enough to enter the brig while he was in there. Nor did I want to execute a POW, as while I might be a killer I was no murderer.

My thinking was that it was best to let hold until more people from Earth turned up and then let them try to question the "The Defiant One" if they dared. If they didn't take him I would have to set him free at some point. Perhaps even return him to his people.

"Wraith grenades are egg-shaped explosives used by Wraith warriors. When activated, they set off a timer, resulting in detonation" Seven told me as she gestured to one of the explosive devices which she had recovered "They are also used as pressure sensitive mines. The weapon is somewhat out of character for the Wraith, as they normally stun people in order to capture or feed upon them".

The device was from the time when the Wraith fought the Ancients in a proper war, now they were more like farmers than soldiers, the humans of this galaxy simply weren't a threat. At least not that required the Wraith's most deadly weapons. As such it made some sense that they'd stopped using such deadly weapons.

"Unfortunately the crashed Wraith supply ship was not carrying much in the way of useful technology" Seven informed me "and I didn't have much time to recover anything from the cruiser".

Seven had whipped up a nasty gas and then as planned she'd pretty much fumigated the crashed cruiser, however since we'd had no way of knowing how tough the Wraith Queen was Seven had used a very toxic gas, in fact it was so toxic that it had killed the cruiser. Wraith ships were in some sense living things as such could be killed.

The gas had done its job very quickly, and had been easily rendered harmless, allowing Seven and some of the robots to board the cruiser so it could be studied. But she hadn't been able to stay for long as the hull had started to give in.

At least this course of action meant that the Wraith Queen hadn't been able to fed on anyone or threaten Atlantis, and with the drilling platform up and running the city had some extra power.

It was a little out of character for Seven to gas people to death, but she'd known that the Queen was a direct threat to the hundreds of folks living in Atlantis, and also the countless humans in this galaxy.

"Well all we need is some sort of basic body armour to help protect against stunners" I said to the cyborg "If things go as they did in the show then the Wraith will try to take the city by force using troops, and while they held them off in the show, we can't be certain things will work out as well. We need to give them some advantages".

After saying that I left the lab, allowing Seven of Nine to get on with her work, but before I got fully out of the room she spoke.

"Do not forget that we have a date this evening" the cyborg reminded "I will be making you dinner in my quarters, and then we will spend the night together, please do not be late".

Seven had decided that we at least attempt to date, and it wasn't that hard to do so when you had a holodeck. Still we were busy people, which made it hard to socialise, but we made an effort.

"I'll see you tonight" I said.

At this point I couldn't help grinning. I was looking forward to dinner. Well actually I was looking forward to what would happen after dinner.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Two weeks went by in what seemed to be no time at all, and while the upgraded defence platform wasn't able to take out all three Hive Ships, it did take out two before being destroyed and my vessel took out the third with a salvo of drones, and when that happened the cruisers simply ran away.

Since then nothing had happened, but I knew it soon would, more Hive ships were on the way, but I wasn't too worried as we still had the teleporting bombs trick to call upon, and my women were working on plan that involved having me use the control chair to remotely fly cloaked Puddle Jumpers that had bombs on board, the idea being to fly them inside a Hive when they launched the darts, and then somehow remotely denote the bombs.

Alas that was turning out to be a lot more complex that it sounded. Puddle Jumpers simply weren't meant to be remotely controlled, and my ship simply couldn't take on more than one or maybe two Hives at the same time. So by the looks of things the fake self destruct was the only option. But we weren't quite there just yet. For now the Wraith were still days away.

Because so far there had been no siege the military forces that had taken over Atlantis recently hadn't been of any use to anyone, and lacking anything to do they were easy to ignore, at least by my group. The only way they could threaten me was to fly a Puddle Jumper with a nuke on board into my ship's hanger bay, which wouldn't work as we could detect cloaked Puddle Jumpers and nukes.

Since I'd destroyed the Hive Ships before they got too close to Atlantis the military people had never deployed nukes as space mines, which was a stupid idea in any case. Not that nukes worried me as I had ZPM boosted shields.

"A ship is exiting hyperspace" reported Seven of Nine from her science station.

It was The Daedalus the first BC-304 produced by the Tau'ri, the people of Earth, and the second generation of interstellar capital ship developed by the United States military. In the show the ship's mission had mostly been to ferry equipment and personnel between Earth and Atlantis, while also assisting the Atlantis expedition as needed. I also remembered that it was the under the command of Colonel Steven Caldwell.

"We've been expecting it" I said to Seven "Its the Earth ship I mentioned".

She was already scanning, while bringing up the file I'd put together on the ship. It was down right amazing how much I could remember about all these science fiction franchises.

"The Daedalus is armed with 32 Railguns, that are no threat to use as long as we have our shields up, and minimal danger without it" Seven soon reported "I can detect a number of nuclear warheads, and a bay of smaller craft. Most likely those F-302 fighter-interceptors mentioned in your files".

So far it matched up with what I remembered. This was the Daedalus before it was upgraded with Asgard weapons, meaning that it wasn't a direct threat to powerful ships such as my Aurora-class or a Wraith Hive Ship. Once it had used the teleporting bomb trick a few times and the Wraith figured out how to jamm transporters, the Daedalus wouldn't be much of a threat to the Wraith Hive ships.

"It also possesses what I assume to be Asgard shields, which they have raised" Seven let me know "I can not be certain if our drone weapons will be able to bypass this barrier, and since they have beaming technology I advise raising our own shields".

Turning my chair I looked over a Cameron who as she often did, managed the weapon's station.

"Raise the shields, but keep our weapons off" I ordered "No sense antagonising our new allies".

In truth the US Military didn't interest me much. Sure poking around their ship might be worthwhile since parts of it were backenginnered from Goa'uld tech, but since those parasites mostly used backenginnered Ancient tech, which I had plenty of access to, exploring that ship's systems would be of minimal value.

Of far more interest to me was the Asgard engineering expert that had been provided to monitor the ship's systems. He was the means to contacting his people, and they were allies of great value.

"Miranda hail them" was my next command "and tell them with some information for the Asgard that is a board their ship. If you get a connection send over the data packet".

The data packet was an overview of all the information I'd gather about human and alien biology over the years, including info on genetic engineering, which given the problems the Asgard were having, should get their attention. I would trade all the data I had on biology and all my samples in exchange for the Asgard sharing just some of their tech with me.

(Line Break)

 **Meeting Room. Atlantis.**

"Now that everyone is seated we can begin" Caldwell said after the doors closed.

There was a moment of silence as most of the people in this room were used to their leader starting these meetings. Before long the Colonel realised that he would have to allow Weir to take control if anything was going to get done. The problem with that was she wasn't a great fan of the military right now, and she seemed content to just sit there.

"Doctor Weir" the Colonel said

"Yes?" was her reply.

Caldwell suppressed a sigh.

"I couldn't help noticing the Ancient war ship in orbit and the total lack of Wraith Hives in the system" he said "Can I assume that the two are connected".

Weir went on to explain recent events, going into great detail about how their ally had aided them, and how the attacking Wraith Hives had been destroyed before they could even get into weapon's range of Atlantis.

"Do you think this Gothic can be trusted" the Colonel asked next.

Weir took a moment before answering the question.

"He seems a good person, but I can tell that he's not telling us everything, he knows more than what he's told us, but he has mentioned specific things that came in very useful, like the satellites" she was now saying "I'm not saying that he will betray us, he has helped us a lot, but he may know more, stuff he doesn't want to tell us".

Everyone stayed pensive for a few moments before Caldwell continued the conversation.

"Well, I won't say that I'm happy that we have an ally we don't know that well with a warship in orbit of this planet, but as long as he continues to help us, I don't see any reason to rock the boat" said the airforce officer "But I can't say the same for IOA, because of the that the threat of the Wraith they want all the advantages that we can get. I wouldn't be surprised if they start making demands of this Gothic person".

There was a moment of silence as people worried about the IOA screwing things up.

"Moving on, we have to deal with the 23 Hive ships moving towards Atlantis" Weir said, desiring a change of subject "they will reach in less than a week and we need plans".

(Line Break)

 **The Daedalus. Pegasus Galaxy.**

One moment I'd been working on something on my shipo, and next thing I knew I had an Asgard in front of me. I'd been abducted off my ship. Cameron would not happy when she found out. I wasn't happy now, I was going to have to look into some of transporter blocker than I could easily turn on and off.

"Greetings, I'm Hermiod of the Asgard" he/she/it said.

This Hermiod sounded male, but if I recalled correctly they were genderless clones, in fact the grey being before didn't have any sexual characteristics at all, and since it was naked I'd have been able to tell if it did.

There were other people around, humans dressed in jumpsuits of some sort, and they were pretending not to be looking at me. I wondered if there were any armed guards around. I couldn't see any, but there could be an entire squad of marines outside of this room ready to come in and shoot me.

"Hello" I replied "Did you want something?".

He stayed there for a full minute, just looking at me with those black eyes and slowly blinking from time to time.

Of course I knew why he'd beamed me over, I just didn't want to sound too eager to help, right now I had something to Asgard needed, and in order to get something worthwhile in exchange I would have to negotiate like a pro. Thankfully I'd gained diplomatic skills from the Voyager Jump, which had come in handy when I'd dealt with Weir.

"I received the data you sent, and forwarded it to my people" the alien informed me "As a result the Asgard High Council wishes to speak with you".

Well that made sense, not only did I have information of human genetics that could be of use to them I also an Ancient warship, that had to be a concern.

"Okay well call them on the space skype, or whatever it is you use to call home" I said.

It blinked at me some more.

"They want to talk to you in person" I was told.

Wow really. Things were moving fast.

"You will go through the Stargate, I have with me a small power source that will allow the stargate to open to our new homeworld" the alien said.

While that sounded like fun, it wasn't very practical.

"I can't leave my ship and crew behind" I said to the alien lifeform "I don't trust the US Military, they might try to seize my ship".

The little grey person didn't seem concerned.

"The Asgard Council had already talked with the IOA of Earth" it said "They were informed that Asgard have taken an interest in you, and that any action taken against your group would be most unwise".

From this I gathered that Asgard were desperate for my help, and that wanted something more from me than mere data.

"I see, well then, I'm good to go, but you should let me contact...

Before I could move I was beamed down to Atlantis

"... my bodyguard.

I was now in front of the Stargate, watching as it activated. This was going to be the first time that I used one, and I was extremely scared and excited at the same time. I understood that it wasn't that different than a transporter in that the Stargate would break my body down, send it to the gate on the other end of the connection via a wormhole, and resemble me on the side. However it was quite another thing knowing that when you were about to experience it.

Still I'd gone through a lot since I'd started Jump Chain, and I knew that it was important to stay focused. I used my communicator to let Miranda know that I could be gone for a few days, and that she was in charge while I was gone. I also had Cameron beam down as going without her would just upset her, and it was never a good idea to have a cybernetic killing machine upset with you.

Once that was all done I stepped into the puddle, and then I was somewhere else, there was no CGI, or anything. I might as well have stepped through an open doorway. Which was odd because I was sure that going through the Stargate was suppose to be a bit rough on person. I could only assume that the Pegasus Stargates, which were a newer model, made for a smoother ride.

One of the many Asgard, the closest to me, move forward and extend a small hand

"Welcome to Orilla, the last home of the Asgard" it said.

I didn't like the sound of 'the last home of the Asgard' it made it seem as if they had already given up.

"Follow me, the Council is waiting" the tiny alien said.

I followed the small xenos through the hallways while the other Asgard just watched me pass by, and while I could hear murmurs, I couldn't hear anything clearly enough to understand what they were talking about. Not that I really needed to do, I didn't imagine they saw humans working these corridors very often.

Before long we reached a big set of double doors at the end of one massive hallway. Given the size of the Asgard, and the fact that they had such small legs the corridors and doors seemed bigger than they should be. Perhaps the style for these buildings was taken from when they'd been taller. Also I noted that unlike the Ancients, the Asgard preferred to use some kind of stone as their main building material.

"Please, enter when ready" my guide said before leaving me there.

When I entered the chamber I saw a room full of aliens who sat on seats that allowed them to look down on me, each Asgard had on a pendant of different colour. Probably to differentiate their positions on the Council.

"You have been summoned by the Asgard High Council so we can discuss an alliance" one of them said. "We brought you here, because our race is dying, we have a problem with the genetic degradation of our cloned bodies and we would like to ask for your help"

Well I hadn't really expect this. Of course I wanted to help them and I was going to offer it, but I hadn't expected such a big deal. I'd imagined that the information I'd gathered on biological matters might be useful when combined with their own research, and that they'd offer something of value in trade for it, but this seemed to be a much bigger deal than I'd anticipated.

"For some time we have been seeking ways to combat our issue with genetic degradation" another grey person was now saying "While we have looked to humanity for aid in this matter we believe the information you possess could be the key. Also your own DNA, which has been genetically modified may be of use to us".

So something about my altered genes must have gotten their attention.

"I will help you as much as I can" was all I could say "I have information of future events that you need to know, and of course if you need DNA samples I can provide them".

The aliens all exchanged looks as I spoke again.

"There are a few future events you should be made aware of" I told the aliens.

If there was time I should mention that Doctor Jackson would make contact with the Ori and start a war, if the Asgard could find that Ancient communications device and destroy it many lives could be saved.

Plus there was the matter of their evil cousins in the Pegasus galaxy, they seemed to have come up with a solution for the whole genetic degradation issue. Even if The Asgard wouldn't use the same methods as their evil cousins, but they could still benefit from the research.

(Line Break)

 **Thor's Ship. Sol System.**

I was starting to see why O'Niell liked the Asgard so much, these guys knew how to get shit done. Not only were they ready to ambush their evil cousins once they lured them to Atlantis by accessing the device in Janus's secret lab, which needed to be found first, but they were already preparing for an Ori invasion should our efforts to prevent it fail.

A way to avoid the Ori invasion was to grab the the long-range communication device, which was a two-way communications device which created a psychological and physiological link between the users on each end, swapping their minds into each other's bodies. It was originally created by the Alterans millions of years ago, before they left their home galaxy.

As for dealing with the evil Asgard that had to wait because it made no sense to involve the Vanir in affairs while a whole bunch of Wraith Hive ships were on their way to Atlantis. It was best not to complicate that issue.

The Ancient known as Myrddin (Merlin) had hollowed out the hill and created a vault. I didn't know much about it other than a person was only allowed entry only transportation rings. Which the Asgard got around by simply installing a set of rings. They must have had the technology for a while given how easily they could make us of it.

"So any idea how to deal with the holographic knight which defends the vault?" I enquired of Thor "I'm not much of swordsmen".

Outside of Star Wars, which I seriously considering for a future Jump, swordsmanship wasn't of much use. Still I couldn't help picturing myself battling the Wraith with a lightsaber, while Thor messed about with some machines.

The holographic guardian was a security measure that Merlin was known to employ. The hologram, which took the form of a medieval knight, was capable of delivering shocks, made up of some harmful energy to an enemy through a sword.

Since it was a hologram, projectile weapons were useless as the bullets would pass through the guardian, and I knew from my time on Voyager that even more advanced weapons wouldn't help you against a hologram, not unless you could target whatever device it was that the source of the hologram.

"I do not know if an Asgard will be able to enter this vault" Thor told me he passed me what seemed to be a small stone "So you must go, and once inside use this stone, it will enhance your memories, and allow to defeat the defences Merlin put in place".

This was why Cameron wasn't coming along. Aside from the fact that the Asgard had valid reasons not to trust intelligent machines, there was also the possibility that the vault's defences might be triggered by the presence of Cameron.

"At some point we must also recover Merlin's research on the weapon which is designed to destroy ascended beings" Thor told me "The Asgard will build the weapon, and hide it away for the day it may be required".

That was how the Ori invasion was being prepared for. Should the Ori invade an Asgard ship would fly to their galaxy and use the device, but only if an invasion started. Of course we had to find which galaxy they came from, which was why we needed the book that could be found in the vault and that explained the origins of the Ancients.

Asgard ships were the only ones that could travel the kinds of distances that a vessel would need to traverse in order to make it to such a far distant galaxy. But given the sheer size of the universe and the number of galaxies out there, flying around looking without an idea of where to go would be futile.

Also the Sangraal, the weapon that could kill the Ori, wasn't actually on Earth, it had been destroyed, so in order to gain the device, we needed to follow a trail which started here. We'd have to find Merlin, and while he died in the show, the Asgard had much more advanced medical tech so they should be able fix him up, and then he could build the weapon for the Asgard to deploy if needs be.

How much of that I would be involved in I yet didn't know. I wasn't sure if the Asgard would trust me to the extent of letting me get my hands on something like the Sangraal. They might decide to work on getting the device with the aid of the humans from Earth, once they had enough information.

If they did I wouldn't mind much. I didn't have any use for the Sangraal, and I didn't want to antogise any ascended beings by owning one.

"As we discussed the treasure located in this vault will be given to British government along with an apology for intruding" Thor said next "The book you mentioned will of course be translated and a copy shall be given to you".

Since there was more than one long distance communication device out there, we didn't want the humans of Earth learning that Ancients had left people behind in another galaxy, as they might try to contact them. Because of this they would never see a copy of that book.

"Now stand on the platform" the small grey alien instructed.

As I did just that I realised that while I was used to go on missions that would decide the fate of a galaxy, I was still enough of a geek to smile like idiot at times like this.

"Okay here goes nothing" I said.

Some metal hops appeared and with a flash of light I was away.


	6. Chapter 6

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 6**

 **Glastonbury** **Tor. United Kingdom.**

Travel using the rings felt a lot like Stargate travel, in that it was over quickly and felt like it should of hurt only it didn't, once it was over I found myself in a dark space. Not it that remained dark for long as old fashioned torches lit themselves without delay.

Without delay I started looking around and before long I found the expected sword in the stone, it was a sort of holographic sword, which functioned different from the holograms I was used to.

As soon as I went up to it a hologram of Merlin also appeared and took some time to welcome me. He mentioned the treasure, and some other stuff that made little sense to me. The message hadn't been intended for me.

With ease I managed to successfully complete the 'truth of spirit' test and the 'reflection' test, I'd seen the solutions in the show, and when I pressed the Asgard made stone to my head I was able to remember the episode much more clearly. Hopefully I would get to keep this stone I could foresee it being very useful in the future.

After finishing the tests I removed the sword from the stone and quickly defeated the holographic knight. I was no swordsmen, but thanks to the 'Tapestry of Life' perk I picked up during the Trek Jump I did have some skill in fencing, that long with my enhanced strength speed, and reflexes, allowed to me defeat the holographic guardian.

Having done that, I was able to lay claim to the 'treasure', and soon a dragon's hoard worth of gold items were lying about in piles, along with jewelry and jewels of all sorts, as well as other items of such as a few works of art, some pottery, and even some primitive weaponry.

None of which had any worth to me as I could get all the gold and jewels I ever wanted from a replicator. What mattered is that I was able to vaporise the long distance communication device with my phaser, and that I found a book that detailed some information about the Alterans and where they came from.

After looking around some more I found something that was obviously some kind of ancient device, it was about the width of a computer keyboard with what appears to be a holographic emitter at the top. There were buttons and some kind of data crystal or maybe a power crystal. It must be some Ancient laptop, and could contain information on the Sangraal.

Since my mission was now complete I grabbed the laptop and the book, before heading to the rings.

(Line Break)

 **Asgard ship. Earth Orbit.**

"What about the rings and the holographic emitter, oh and the sword?" I asked Thor as he uploaded information from the Ancient computer into a machine of his own "Are we going to leave that all behind?".

Thor blinked at me. I figured that the titling of the head combined with blinking was some sort of nonverbal communication between Asgard, like how humans can use facial expression to convey moods, but I had no idea what Thor was expressing.

"While my people do have holographic technology, we will take the holographic emitter. I think we can learn something from that technology. We will leave the rings. We might find a reason to come back here someday, and we need to give the humans of this world the means to recover the treasure".

Thor quickly finished the upload.

"This computer does serve a similar purpose to the human device known as a laptop, only it is much more advanced" the little grey guy was now saying "I have copied the information, you may have the device itself".

I quickly picked it up. I didn't recall Merlin having left his laptop in that vault and I was sure that Seven of Nine would very much enjoy finding out what was on its database, and at some point Tali'Zorah would want to take it apart.

"Now I must return to your ship" Thor informed me "Atlantis is still under threat and the High Council has charged me with aiding in its defence".

So an Asgard ship was going to aid in the defence of the city. That was cool.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"Productive trip?" Miranda Lawson asked after an Asgard transport beam had returned me to my ship.

Indeed it had been.

"Yes" I replied "Our group has an alliance with the Asgard, and I've them given all the information we have on genetic engineering, as well as all those samples of alien DNA I've picked up over the years".

Those samples had been stored in my Cosmic Warehouse as such I'd been able to get them even while in the Ida galaxy. Once I'd relieved its existence to the Asgard it had raised a lot of questions, so I'd told them the truth, sort of, which was that I'd been sent to this universe by an ascend being. The actual truth, what Jump Chain involved, wasn't fully understood even by me.

As for trading the samples, well they'd never had much value to me, I'd only gathered them because I'd figured that they might come in handy some day, and now they had.

"In exchange, once things calm with Atlantis the Asgard will upgrade our hyperdrive" I was now telling Miranda "which will be handy since while we have that technology we don't know how to employ it".

The Atlantis Expedition had shared the knowledge of advanced hyperdrive with us, which had been an amazing act of trust at the time, but upgrading the hyperdrive might have been beyond our skill, at least in the short term.

"Given that we have a ZPM we could end up a top hyperdrive speed that will allow to move between galaxies in just a few weeks, maybe even days" I then said.

Which would still make Asgard ships much faster, but that made sense as they wouldn't want to give up their speed advantage even to an ally. Still even Quantum Slipstream drive was going to seem super slow when compared to an upgraded hyperdrive.

"They've even offered one of the new beam weapons they are working on, but we'll have to wait for that as its still research and development" I mentioned.

While the Asgard did have very advanced tech they weren't willing to hand over much despite my help. Partly this was because I already had Ancient tech, which was super advanced, and also because they didn't know me well enough to trust me with even more advanced tech. Not yet anyway. Which was wise.

They were however willing to offer me the best weapons they had, and that was good as I would need them once the drones ran out. I figured the weapons were given more out of sheer gratuite than trust.

"So did you single handedly save their entire race?" Miranda asked next.

Like their Ida cousins, the Vanir employ cloning as a means of propagating their race. Also like Asgard of the Ida galaxy, the Vanir suffered the negative effects of generations of cloning and re-cloning themselves and sought means by which to stabilize their genetic structure. However, where the Ida Asgard were unwilling to engage in acts that risked other lives in that endeavor, the Vanir, consumed with the desire to survive, believed that the ends justifies the means.

During the Ancient's war with the Wraith the Vanir began conducting experiments, similar to those conducted by Loki in the Milky Way galaxy, on Humans of the Pegasus galaxy, allowing them a level of success in stabilizing their genome and preventing extreme cellular degradation.

I sighed gently while remembering what I'd been told about the genetic problems of the Asgard. They'd attempted to correct the issue by slicing quite a bit of human DNA into their clone bodies, making these bodies look more like those of their distant ancestors, however the Asgard mind couldn't be supported by a human sized brain, and since normal humans couldn't ascend they didn't want de-evolve like that. If they did they wouldn't be Asgard anymore.

This might explain why the Asgard living in this galaxy were a lot more aggressive and less advanced in terms of technology (they lacked advanced hyperdrive and teleporters) than their cousins in the Ida galaxy. They could have used too much human DNA when making new clone bodies. It may have de-evolved them in some sense. Although given that they still looked like Asgard perhaps they hadn't used that much human DNA. Well it was just a theory.

Ascending was why more evolved humans were of interest to the Asgard, such as humans who had Ancients as ancestors, people like Jack O'Neill. The hope was that the genetics of more advanced humans would allow the Asgard to create new and healthy clone bodies that could support their minds, and not turn them into ruthless assholes, as well put them back on a path that could lead them to the ability to ascend.

Since I had the Ancient gene and a superior genetically engineered body I was of interest as well, and I'd given the Asgard many samples to study while visiting their homeworld. The other samples were of interest because they weren't just looking at human DNA for a solution to their problems.

"Even if some piece of information we gave them was the key to solving their problem with genetics, I don't think they have enough time to unlock the solution" I informed the former Cerberus operative "No they need a solution now".

Thankfully there might be one, more than one in fact.

"I let the Asgard know that somewhere on course between the Pegasus galaxy and the Milky Way there is a ship full of Ancients" I said to Miranda as we began walking to my quarters "In the show these Ancients basically kick everyone out of Atlantis, and of they do so here that should prevent some problems, like the creation of Michael and the Asurans going on the rampage".

While the Ancients might object to me having one of their warships, there wouldn't be much they could do about it, and I wasn't going to give in to any demands they had. I was only going to help save them because it suited me.

Hopefully the crew of the ship could provide the Asgard with all the evolved human DNA they needed to save their race, and in exchange the Asgard would be able to help the Ancients rebuild what they could.

That along with the Ori never learning that there were more humans out there in the big wide universe, should mean a lot less people dying over the coming years, and more stability. Not that things would be boring, the Wraith would still have their civil war.

In the Milky Way the Lucian Alliance could still be a pain, and the Free Jaffa Nation was going to have problems, perhaps even resulting in a civil war between the Jaffa factions. Plus there was Baal and his clones for the SGC to worry about.

So yeah plenty to keep everyone busy.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"This wasn't part of the plan" Major Sheppard stated.

I could tell that he was trying not to sound too angry. No doubt he was only holding back because I'd told him that if he didn't behave I'd throw him my ship even if there wasn't anywhere for him to go.

"The Asgard won't attack unless we at least give the Wraith the chance go back off" I informed the airforce pilot "And without that O'Neill class battleship out there I don't fancy our chances of taking on 23 Hive ships".

My new allies were a very moral people, and even when facing their own end they didn't abandon their ethics, which was why they had sent one of their most powerful vessels to aid us in this battle.

The Asgard were, thanks to me, aware of what their evil cousins had gotten up to during the Ancient-Wraith war, and how they'd completed their research at the expense of the humans in this galaxy.

Because the Asgard High Council had concerns about using the Vanir's research to save their race in the same way that a doctor on Earth would have an issue about using medical knowledge gained from unethical experiments to treat someone. The only real difference was the sheer scale.

Upon thinking about this I had suggested to Thor, who was in command of the Asgard warship which was part of our attack force, that the Asgard could balance out the karmic scales by aiding the humans in the galaxy.

This could be done in many ways, but the best way would be for the Asgard to aid Atlantis as they in turn tried to help the people of this galaxy. Not just by fighting the Wraith, who were everyone's enemy, but also through medical aid, food shipments, and supplies to help them recover from cullings.

My suggestion had gone down well with the Asgard High Council, who seemed to value my advice, most likely because an outside perspective was often helpful, and from their perspective I was a dumb human who tended to see simple solutions to complex problems.

"But we'll be throwing away the opportunity for a decisive strike on the enemy fleet" Sheppard argued "The more of them we kill here the less we'll have to deal with later, and I should point out that the Wraith are heading to Atlantis to murder us so they clear a path to Earth, and they want to go to Earth so they eat millions of people".

I was well aware of all this.

"Just because the enemy are ruthless assholes doesn't mean we have to be" I said to the Major "Besides I know they won't back off, making the offer just means we can kill thousands of them and not lose so much sleep over it".

I'd killed a lot of people during my Jump Chain, I'd long since lost count, but I didn't worry too much about it because it had always been in defence of myself or others that I cared about. I might be a killer, but I wasn't a murderer. And I didn't intend to change that fact. We would try to talk to the Wraith, and then nuke them all.

"Trust me, the Wraith won't take you seriously unless you kick their ass" Shepard insisted.

I had to remind myself as to why I'd allowed this man to tag along. Mostly it was because the Asgard had suggested that I make more of an effort to trust the people of Earth, like they had.

Those grey dudes were going to upgrade my hyperdrive for me, and they planned to give those cool beams weapons they were currently working on. But they could take those advancements away, as such I had to prove that I could get along with my allies, and that I would use the technology in a responsible way.

"Major, based on what I know about the Wraith I don't believe peaceful coexistence is at all possible, at least not without some serious changes to both their culture and biology" I said to the air force officer "In the meantime we'll do what we can to protect Atlantis, and that involves giving them a chance to break off, after that we'll blow up as many Hive ships as we can, then we'll disengage from combat".

By this point we were all aware that the beaming over warheads trick would only work a few times before the Wraith adapted to counter the threat. Once they did we'd have to leave and go with the self destruct plan.

"Besides it's not like they can pursue us" I said next "All our ships are much faster than there's so we'll be able to return to Atlantis within plenty of time, after we've blooded the enemy".

This plan had merit, the Wraith didn't have the endless numbers of warriors they'd had back when they'd battled the Ancients, and they hadn't fought a proper war in thousands of years. This was a good chance to bloody them.

"I just hope we don't live to regret this" Sheppard muttered.

When the Hives, and the supporting cruisers appeared, I used my command chair to bring up a holographic projection of the enemy fleet. They were in formation, forming a huge V shape almost like a flock of birds.

"You'd better raise the shield as soon as we de-cloak just in case they're feeling trigger-happy" Sheppard advised.

This wasn't exactly my first space battle. However this wasn't the time to bring that up.

"Drop the cloak and raise shields" I ordered.

Aurora-class warships didn't actually come with cloaking devices, but it had been pretty simple to install one. It had been one of the final upgrades we'd made before leaving spacedock.

"They're charging weapons" Cameron reported.

Given that a warship of their old enemy had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, their reaction wasn't surprising.

"Charge ours and get a lock on the closest Hive" I commanded "Prepare to beam over the first warhead".

Thor hadn't as of yet made his speech, which would urge the Wraith to leave Atlantis alone. Which of course they wouldn't.

"Wraith Darts are being launched" Seven of Nine reported over the comm system.

I had her down in what passed for astrometrics on this ship. I didn't want Shepard seeing her and asking questions about how come I had a fictional character on my ship. No one had recognised Cameron so far. Perhaps Summer Glau hadn't been an actress in this reality.

"Supreme Commander Thor is talking to the Wraith" Miranda informed me.

We all waited for the fighting to start. We didn't have to wait long.

"The Hives have opened fire" Cameron told me.

Now we could kill them and still maintain the moral high ground.

"Return the favour" I instructed "Pulse cannons focus on the nearest Hive. And beam over the warhead as soon as we can get a target lock".

Our transporter didn't have the greatest range. Tali had done her best, but she was only one person, as such we needed to get close.

"Wraith Darts are making an attack run" I was told.

There were a lot of Darts out there, more than enough to threaten even my ship with its ZPM enhanced shields.

"Redirect fire, use the pulse cannons to deal with the Darts" I commanded "And beam over the first warhead".

Within a matter of seconds three Hive Ships blew up from the inside, each having been destroyed by a beamed over powerful explosive which had come from a different ship. Thor's O'Neill class, the Daedalus or my own ship.

The damage wasn't as impressive as in the show, and the bombs themselves didn't do all the damage, the Wraith ships all suffered their own version of warp core breach. Which cause secondary explosions that were rather more impressive, and did the real damage.

"Think they'll surrender?" Miranda wondered.

Somehow I doubted it.

"No, but if they've got any sense they'll run" I said to her.

Even when three more Hive Ships were destroyed they neither fled nor surrendered.

"They are generating a jamming signal that prevents us beaming over any more warheads" Seven reported "I am attempting to compensate".

This was how we'd expected things to go, and it wasn't disappointing. If the Wraith did have about sixty Hives total then we'd just destroyed a tenth of them in a matter of moments.

"We could to take more of them with the drones" Sheppard suggested.

A bad idea given that we were still outnumbered and outgunned.

"Set course for Atlantis, prepare to engage the hyperdrive" I ordered.

This battle was over.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"They never show you these parts on TV" I said, mostly to myself "The bits when people sit around waiting for something to happen".

Granted there was a good reason for that as if a show did let the audience see those parts they'd lose their audiences pretty quick due to how boring it is. The downside to this was that when you found yourself in a school called fictional universe, you were totally unprepared for the dull parts.

Sure I'd experienced this before as I'd now spent many years living in science fiction settings, but that didn't change the fact that I was bloody bored. Which was actually rather impressive given that I was living the dream of being a starship captain.

"Do you ever think we'll visit the Earth of this reality" Cameron asked, rather out of the blue.

Since Miranda was sleeping, Tali was in engineering and Seven was in one of the science labs, it was just Cameron and I on the bridge. There weren't even any robots since there was nothing for them to do in here.

"Why do you ask?" I wondered.

By now I was looking over at Cameron, who as ever wore casual clothing that would allow her to blend in during my native time.

"I was thinking that we could visit Paris. It's supposed to be a very romantic city," Cameron told me "Your harem would enjoy such a trip".

Perhaps they would, and it was possible given that we could cloak the ship while it was in the Sol system, and take a Puddle Jumper, also cloaked to France. That wasn't without risk, but the danger would be minimal, and Cameron rarely showed much desire to explore her own interests.

"I do not understand why" Cameron said next.

Her question brought me out of my trail of thought, which had involved thinking about the sights we could visit on Earth via cloaked puddle jumper.

"Why what?" I asked.

During my time on Voyager my Terminator had become somewhat of a well rounded person in the sense that she had interests, opinions, and such. But she rarely made conversation like this.

"Why is Paris supposed to be any more or less 'romantic' than anywhere else on the planet?" she questioned.

I gave it some thought.

"No a clue" I told her "It's just romantic for some reason".

It might be better if she asked a woman about that. I cared little for romance.

"Still I would like to visit Paris" Cameron told me "If only to try to discover why it is romantic".

More than likely we could recreate the city on the holodeck, but I had the feeling that a simulation wouldn't be good enough.

"I thought of a way we could spend the time," the cyborg said after a moment.

After standing up I need a moment to have a good stretch. The captain's chair wasn't that comfortable, and sitting in for long periods of time wasn't pleasant.

"Yeah?" I said.

Cameron gave me a smile as she got down on her knees, then reached down and started undoing my jeans. I was also wearing what I considered to be rather normal clothing.

I watched as Cameron opened up trousers and slipped a hand into my boxers so that she could extract mu penis. I then bit back a moan as Cameron wrapped her fingers around my swelling cock, and began slowly pumping her fist up and down the hardening shaft.

She turned her gaze from my dick back and looked up at my face, and was soon giving me a naughty smile as she worked on my erection with her hand a little more before getting to work with her mouth.

This time I did moan as I felt her hot, wet mouth cover my cock. She'd spent a lot of time perfecting her oral techniques, and like when we did anything sexual my terminator totally focused on my pleasure.

Cameron could simply make herself wet and ready within a few moments, so foreplay wasn't really necessary, and while Cameron claimed to enjoy sex, she never seemed that concerned with her own pleasure. I'd tried to pleasure her, but I'd never gotten much of a reaction from her. She'd literally been made to keep me safe and happy, as such she was programmed to please me with sex.

She began gradually taking more of me into her mouth, and Cameron continued sucking me at a leisurely but steady pace. Then she suddenly stopped.

"Take your jeans off," she said

As I did that she reached down and undid her own belt.

"Cowgirl or doggy style?" Cameron asked as she unzipped her jeans.

Even for her that was rather frank, and even after years together she could still blind side me with her attitude. Although it was rare that she could do so these days.

"We need to have sex in a position that still lets me monitor my station" Cameron said, as she pushed her jeans and panties down off of her hips "That will only be possible in those two positions"

I smiled at the petite cyborg.

"Reverse cowgirl, please" I said.

"How adventures of you" she commented.

It wasn't really, it was my favourite position with Cameron, as she had a butt that was small yet somehow perfectly shaped. Clearly she'd been created with my love of butts in mind.

While the floor of the bridge wasn't comfortable I didn't really care, and neither did the cyborg as Cameron reached down and took hold of my cock, before using it to impale herself.

"I've read that variety can help maintain a healthy sexual relationship. One suggestion was to 'make love' in new and unusual locations" she let me know.

Cameron expertly began riding me. She knew exactly how to maximise my enjoyment, and she'd gotten plenty of practice pleasing me this way.

"Defiantly a new and unusual location even for us" I commented.

Her pussy engulfed my with tight, wet heat, as she made slow, up and down motions as she did the things she did second best, which was to pleasure me, the best thing she did was protect me.

I smacked her ass encouragingly as she began to pick up the pace. And this when an alert went off, letting me know that someone was calling me on the space phone.

"Ignore it" I said.

Cameron got up off me and rapidly began to dress, an act with greatly upset me.

"We can't" she said next "The signal is coming from the Asgard ship".

Well that meant it was Thor, and he was cool enough that I could forgive him for interrupting my naked fun time. It was good thing that Weir hadn't been the one to spoil the moment otherwise I might have fired on Atlantis.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

In the end things worked out just like in the show. I was now on the bridge of my ship, which was cloaked, watching the Wraith Hives disappear into hyperspace, since they believed the city had been destroyed, and that the way to Earth was gone, there was no reason for them to stick around.

Before long the Wraith would start their civil war as despite their losses there wasn't enough food to go around. I knew the Wraith were territorial and as such different factions would soon start to fight over populated worlds, which to them were feeding grounds.

For now Atlantis remained in the hands of the expedition, but I knew that would change as I'd shared a lot of information with the Asgard, and those little grey people would find the remaining Ancients sooner rather than later. With their advanced medical tech even the Ancients currently in stasis on one of the Aurora class might be saved as well those Ancients who were right now flying between galaxies at near the speed of light.

By saving them the Asgard might just save themselves, preventing the extinction of two races, ascended beings didn't count, and I was free to explore this universe, and to gather more technology.

"What did Thor want this time?" Miranda asked me once we were sure the Wraith were gone "Haven't we given the Asgard enough?".

Actually we hadn't given the Asgard much of anything, at least not in terms of material value. I'd collected all those DNA samples for a purpose such as aiding the grey people in their attempts to save their race.

"To thank me" I told Miranda "One of the Asgard I met called Heimdall had a bit of a breakthrough".

Heimdall, an Asgard genetics expert was unlike some other Asgard, had a friendly, and enthusiastic attitude while dealing with Humans. She been the one to poke and prod me as part of her (she seemed female) research into genetics

"Turns out it might not be humans who are the key to saving the Asgard rather it's the asari" I said next "Apparently the large brain capacity combined with their longevity might mean a new Asgard clone that is much stronger, and the asari can reproduce without sexual intercourse so Heimdall".

From what I understood Heimdall was working towards a long term solution to the race's problems while other Asgard were going to deal with Vanir and work out something for the short term.

"Anyone I also agreed to hand over our Wraith prisoner" I informed Miss Lawson "None of us know enough about biology to make it worth while dissecting him, and frankly I wasn't willing to torture him for information, or fed him in exchange for it. The Asgard might have something that lets them simply download information from a person's mind without harming them, and their studies of genetics could benefit from a captured Wraith".

Miranda did not looked pleased.

"These beams weapons of theirs better be worth all this trouble" she commented.

Unlike most ship-based energy weapon systems, which are designed to fire individual pulses of energy, the Asgard plasma beam is a narrow, high-intensity beam of superheated plasma. These beams are capable of overloading and penetrating even the most advanced shields and burning through the hulls and internal structures of an enemy vessel with comparative ease, causing heavy damage.

Replicator made Aurora-class warships could easily be destroyed by these beams, which is why I wanted them, there was still a chance that the Replicators would start attacking human settlements.

One day the Tau'ri would have those weapons, and I wanted them first so that my companions could come up with some sort of defence against such powerful weapons.

"I'll ask about shield upgrades too" I said to Miranda.

Now that Atlantis was safe the Asgard would be able to start installing their upgrades, I wanted that done before we went after the Vanir, and before I started exploring any more galaxies.


	7. Chapter 7

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 7**

 **Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"So these are Ancients" said Tali as she gestured at the human looking people who were already at work try to restore their city. "And you found them".

Tali and didn't spend much time off the ship so when the Ancients that the Asgard had recovered from the void between galaxies, invited my group down to Atlantis in order to be thanked for our part in saving them, I'd decided to bring her down along with Cameron, leaving Miranda in charge of the ship.

Miranda wanted to come along too, but while it had involved some risk, she'd taken the gene therapy, and it worked, meaning she could control Ancient technology, as such she needed to stay on the ship when I wasn't on it. Sadly for Seven the treatment hadn't worked. No one knew why, but some people just couldn't have the gene.

Perhaps that would change if we found someone with enough information on biology to perfect the process which gave people the gene, but that project was at the bottom of a very long list.

"During a battle with Wraith Cruisers, their ship, which is called the _Tria,_ was damaged, and they received word that the Lanteans had left Atlantis via Stargate for Earth" I explained to Tali "Since they unable to use the Stargate to get back to Earth, only the one here in Atlantis can do that and the city was under seige at the time, the crew modified their hyperdrive to make the intergalactic trip, and the _Tria_ began the long trek to the Milky Way galaxy".

Not an ideal plan, but they hadn't really had much of a choice.

"However halfway through the trip, their hyperdrive broke down, and since they had nowhere to go, the crew used their sublight drive powered by a ZPM to travel at 99.9% the speed of light" I said next "Traveling at this speed, the idea was that would only experience a few years due to relativity".

Although it would still have taken millions of years to make the journey, at least for the rest of the universe, so by the time the Tria had actually reached the Milky Way everyone they knew would have dead for millions of years. Still what else could they have done.

"The Asgard actually found them" was what I said next "I just told them where to look".

Granted I'd been able to supply them with much in the way of details, other than between Pegasus and the Milky Way, but the Asgard were pretty smart, they'd been able to predict the course an Ancient warship would take if trying to reach Earth, and with their powerful sensors they'd been able to find the Aurora-class ship.

I then pointed down at a women who was standing with the few members of the expedition that were still within the city. There was also an Asgard here called Freyr, who was a member of the High Council, from what I could hear the High Council was strongly supporting the idea of having at least some of expedition remaining here.

However the Captain of the remaining Ancients was insisting that everyone leave, soon a compromise of sorts was reach that allowed a small amount of humans and Asgard to stay in Atlantis as liaisons as long as they didn't get in the way.

This pleased me as Atlantis team did harm than good in the long, at least in my view, and it was mine that mattered. Sure they had the best of intentions, but in the show they did things that could be considered to be evil.

Take Micheal for example, which is probably the worst thing they ever did. They kidnapped a Wraith, who while vile from the human perspective are a sentient species, experimented on him, lied to him, kept him prisoner, then later betrayed him, by doing the same experiment on him again.

I would not, and could not, defend Michaels actions, for he was a monster who made men like Hitler and Stalin seemed tame, but nobody should have to be put through what Michael had to go through twice, Wraith or otherwise.

Plus they experimented on a Wraith POW, and Shepard executed one of their Wraith prisoners. Which while not illegal, since the Wraith don't have human rights, it was still immoral to kill POWs. I hadn't even been willing to torture the Wraith I'd had captive.

Aside from waking up the Wraith, which hadn't been totally their fault, in the show it was Shepard's team that activated the bit of code that makes the Asurans attack the Wraith, and as a tactic in that war the Asurans began wiping out human populations.

Heck the leaders of some of the people in this galaxy actually put Shepard's team on trail. At that point they really should have stopped and taken stock of their actions.

However calling them evil was wrong, they had no evil intent, and I wasn't exactly qualified to judge. I had more than my fair share of people I'd turned into corpses, and I'd stolen, lied and all sorts of naughty things. Right now I was even thinking up ways to commit genocide on the Wraith.

Still while I had no right to judge them I also couldn't stand by and allow all those terrible things to happen. I wasn't exactly the kind of person who placed a lot of value on the lives of strangers, but even I had my limits. Millions of humans would have died over the next few years had I done nothing.

"Captain Helia" I greeted as a female Ancient came to me.

Like all the military types here she wore a uniform of some kind. The style was odd to, but it clearly worked for the Ancients.

"Captain Gothic" she said with a nod.

Captain Helia was a Lantean military officer, and the captain of the warship _Tria_. During the war with the Wraith, the _Tria_ was damaged. When the Ancient Council gave the order to evacuate to Earth, they attempt to proceeded to Lantea, the planet Atlantis was on, but then they learned that the rest of the Lanteans had already left for Earth by Stargate.

Helia decided to return to Earth with the _Tria_ , knowing that it would be a long trip, but the hyperdrive cut out in the void between the Milky Way and Pegasus. Unwilling to return to Pegasus, they decided to continue by traveling at 0.999 light speed, using a Zero Point Module to power the engines, while placing themselves in stasis pods. Due to relativity, they only experienced a handful of years. However for everyone else thousands of years passed by.

Now as the highest ranking member of the Lantean military, she'd taken control of Atlantis. As I'd both known and hoped she would. That had been part of my plan all along, I just hadn't thought it would happen so soon.

"I'm surprised to find yet another human with our gene" she said.

While I didn't know for sure how the Ancients viewed the humans they created, they did see themselves as superior, and so perhaps the idea of making babies with a human was distasteful to them.

"Well if you didn't want your people to interbreed with humans then why make it even possible?" I wondered "I'm sure you could have fixed our DNA so that it wasn't compatible with ours".

Of course this didn't apply to me as I'd gotten the gene due to actions of a higher power, but it was still a good point. And the Ancients had seeded human life in both this galaxy and the Milky Way, although given that they'd left the Milky Way millions of years the gene wouldn't have existed back then.

"We could have, but the decision was taken early on that we wanted humans to see us more like parents creating children than scientists working on a lab experiment, and that choice was made long before I was born" she replied "When it became clear that the humans of this galaxy had become developed enough to start using our technology, which is in part mentally controlled, the gene was created to act as a sort of key. Only then was interbreeding with humans made a crime".

That actually made sense. Which struck me as odd as a lot of what the Ancients had done never really seemed logical. Take that exploding tumor making machine for example, no sane person could have come up with that.

"Not all of our technology requires the gene in any case" the captain was now saying "And some technology only required one of my people to activate it. We never intended to deprive humans of all our technology".

Again this made sense.

"So you just didn't trust the children to play with your best toys" Tali observed.

While this might seem condescending it was a wise policy.

"The people from Earth are not exactly cavemen anymore" I pointed out "but I do agree with not letting the Tau'ri mess about with Atlantis".

The captain seemed surprised by my words. Pleasantly so in fact.

"I just wished your fellow humans understood this" the Ancient leader lamented "A misused potentia, what you call a ZPM, could destroy an entire solar system if overloaded, and when we attempted to make an even more powerful energy source for our weapons we almost did destroy an entire inhabited solar system. We are smarter than you, more cautious, and yet we can still make the most terrible of mistakes".

This seemed like a good a time as any to pitch my idea. I'd considered it a while back, but it had just hadn't seemed practical until some Ancients had come along.

"Are you aware of the Attero Device?" I asked.

The Attero Device was a powerful weapon created by the rogue Lantean scientist Janus as a means of ending the Lantean-Wraith war by destroying the Wraith's ability to travel faster than light with their hyperdrives. I'd hoped that the captain would know of it, and judging by the look on her face she did.

The Attero device was first activated 10,000 years ago, when its creator Janus tested it. He deactivated it after only three days, due to "devastating and unforeseen side effects", which were later discovered to be the cause of Stargates across the galaxy each exploding with the force of a dozen Nuclear warheads.

"Yes" she said "If I remember correctly the device sent a interference signal into subspace that would make Wraith Hyperdrives explode when they tried to open a hyperspace window. Since our ships engines run on a different frequency of subspace, they would still work and we could have just hunted down any remaining Wraith Hives which stayed put. As soon as it was turned on we started getting reports of Wraith Hives and Cruisers blowing up, and then we got reports that the astrea porta were exploding too".

Astrea porta was the proper name for a Stargate.

"Well I mentioned it because the device is under the control of the Vanir, who the Asgard plan to lure to Atlantis" I said "And it struck me that the Milky Way stargates can all be turned off, so if we can capture the device, and disable the Stargate network, the device could be used safely".

Captain Helia gave the matter some thought.

"How did you manage to disable the entire Stargate network?" she asked.

She made it sound like an impressive achievement.

"I didn't" I explained "and if I recall correctly it was done by a scientist on Earth. The Asgard should be able to get the details"

"Such a virus must have spread via the correlative update system" Captain Helia mused.

The _correlative update system_ is a program within DHDs that tells when a Stargate has changed its position. Because of stellar drift, the update system will cause a Stargate to randomly dial the other Stargates to update its location to inform them of where they are.

"If we can seize the device, capture the Vanir, shut down the gate network and then activate the device, we could remove two threats in short order" I said "The Wraith Hives will be easy pickings, and without the gates they can't use their darts for culling. The only downside is that human civilizations won't be able to trade with each other, but we can turn the Stargates back on once the Wraith have been dealt with".

Which could take a while as there were many Hives ships left in the galaxy, more than fifty perhaps, and I doubted even any one Wraith knew exactly how many cruisers there were out there.

Captain Helia was understably impressed. I was less pleased as I didn't want to help wipe out a whole species, but I still had that Judgment Day perk which meant I knew exactly how many human civilizations would be destroyed over the next few years if something wasn't done. I had to at least try to prevent them.

"Are you sure you aren't one of us?" she asked.

I smiled as she was trying to compliment me. She knew very well that I wasn't an Ancient I'd explained that an ascended being of great power had modified me, and had given me advanced technology before sending me to other universes. I'd been surprised that anyone believed me, but this was Stargate, some weird shit had happened in the verse.

"Talk to the Asgard about how we dumb humans can sometimes come with simple solutions to complex problems" I suggested.

Captain Helia frowned.

"By that I assume you think I should let the people from Earth stay" she said.

Actually I didn't, but perhaps throwing them out completely was wrong. If nothing else the Ancients could use some support in their efforts to restore at least some of what they'd lost.

"You should let a small group stay" I advised "then over time allow more to come work in the city. Your people don't have the numbers to rebuild your civilizations, even if the Asgard find the Aurora and recover its crew, you just won't have the people you need to finish off the Wraith. So you should educate humans to help you run the city and recover the technology scattered around the galaxy, and offer them aid with their development in exchange".

Captain Helia gripped a nearby railing and sighed. I could tell that this was all taking a toil on her, and that wasn't surprising, she was ten thousand years out of her time and now had the responsibility of trying to rebuild her people's entire civilization. No wonder she was a bit cranky.

"I'll consider it" she said.

And with that she just left. I hadn't gotten my thank you after all.

"She's a bit rude" commented Tali.

Indeed she was.

(Line Break)

 **Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.**

The trap was set, we'd found Janus's lab without much trouble thanks to a combination of my memories, and the Ancient database. In short order the lab was cleared out, leaving only the device the Vanir sought, which acted as bait.

Since I know how they would attack it was a simple matter to prepared. Ancients with stun weapons were at the top of the tower while Cameron, Miranda, Tali and I were in the actual lab, having taken cover behind some consules.

The idea was to stun them as soon as they came the hologram door, this room was shielded against scans, so there was no way the Vanir should be able to detect that there was anyone inside the lab. So we should be able to surprise the Vanir.

Thor didn't know exactly how the armour worn by the Vanir worked, but he was fairly certain that it was based on similar suits the Asgard made great use when they needed to enter hostile environments. As such they provided a potent defence against physical attack, as well as stuff like extreme cold and heat, but they should be vulnerable to energy weapons.

Which made sense as I could recall how Daniel Jackson and Rodney Mckay used the Vanir's own weapons against them. This was why my team had phasers and Ancient energy weapons of the hand held variety. I'd have to see if they had a pistol version similar to that used by the Asurans and the Ancient stunners didn't seem like real guns.

The Ancients had also asked for aid from Stargate Command, who were doing this for the sake of the Asgard. I suspected that Captain Helia was being pressured by the Asgard to build better relations with the people from Earth. Still I was glad that there teams of heavily armed marines here in the city.

"Two Vanir are approaching your position" we were warned.

As soon as the armoured figures appeared my group opened fire, it took quite a few shots, but we were able to take them down.

"Not much of a firefight" I commented.

I was actually missing my days with Commander Shepard when people always seemed to be shooting at me. I had to be crazy.

"We don't see much action these days do we" Miranda stated.

Even Voyager's away missing involved more shooting than this.

"I for one do not miss being shot at" said Tali.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

As I often found myself doing these days I entered one of the many science labs which Seven of Nine had set up. This was a new one, she seemed to have created different labs for different departments of research.

It became clear to me very quickly that this lab, which had been one of the many empty rooms on board the ship until recently, had become a lab dedicated to study of body armour and other means of protection.

"Well they'll be switching on the Attero Device soon" I informed the former Borg drone "Once its up a running the days of Wraith dominance in the galaxy will be over".

Seven turned to face me. She wasn't one for expressing much in the way of feeling, so when she did it paid to pay attention.

"I am unsure if this course of action is correct" Seven told me "While peaceful co-existence with the Wraith is impossible, bringing about their extermation still seems morally wrong".

Well she wasn't wrong. The Wraith weren't soulless demonic creatures their motivation wasn't to cause suffering, they just wanted to remain top of the food chain so they could keep themselves fed.

Still they were a threat to all human life out there, and since they didn't tolerate advanced technologies other than their own they were a threat to all sentient races, human or otherwise.

"Even if we could remove the Wraith's need to feed they might just wipe out all human life to eliminate a potential threat" I said "Or enslave humanity, and we can't exactly exile to them a planet and take away all their tech, because they'd either starve to death or turn on each other and then starve".

Seven didn't argue the point, but I could tell that she was uncomfortable, so I decided to change the subject.

"Tell me about the armour" I requested.

Seven turned to the one suit of Vanir armour we'd be able to get for study. There had been four suits, one had been kept by the Asgard, who'd found a way to disarm the self destruct, the Ancients had another, and the last suit was being given to the Tau'ri as a way of saying thanks for the help.

"This suit of armour" Seven started by saying "Which is actually a suit designed for harsh environments not for fighting, encompasses the entire body of whoever wears it. While it is durable its protection against weapon's fire is limited. However should we acquire more of these suits I should be able to install kinetic barrier and life support belts, which project a force field around the wearer, in order to increase the protection offered".

More defences would be good. This verse was a dangerous one and I didn't know about everything out there, best to be as prepared as possible.

"Inside the suit's helmet, which is detachable from the rest of the suit, is a Heads up display. This display shows various sensors and can differentiate between friend or foe, outlining a friend in green and a foe in red.

She had more to tell me.

"This set of protective gear is resistant to significant impacts, such as the force of landing after jumping from a great height" Seven explained to me "There are thrusters in the feet to slow descent speed, but only marginally. I don't recommend jumping out of any spacecraft".

Which wasn't something I was in the habit of doing. I'd never totally shaken my fear of heights despite everything that had happened to me.

"The wearer would have the ability to resist incredibly high levels of otherwise fatal radiation" was what she said next "As well as extreme hot and cold, toxic atmospheres, as well as other hazards, but without more testing I do not know the limits of this technology".

So maybe not a good idea to wear it and go swimming in lava then.

"There is a magnetic holster attached to the suit where an energy weapon can be carried" the former borg drone let me know "A circular shield in the left arm that can withstand sustained fire from high-caliber projectile weapons for a short period. A self-destruct that activates if the suit is tampered with. When powered up an electromagnetic field emitted from the suit that disrupts scanners".

Despite its many strengths and advantages, the suits could be penetrated by weapon fire, energy weapons were more effective than projectile weapons from what I knew.

"Well I've asked for enough suit for all of us" I told Seven of Nine "We should get them once the other rouge Asgard have been hunted down".

Which hopefully wouldn't take long. We had good armour, and other defences, but we could always do with better protection.

"Now what can you tell me about their weapons?" I asked.

While Seven had a lab for the study of weapons, the Vanir guns were located in this lab, she must not yet have begun a detailed study of the technology.

"These are handheld weapons, shaped like a pistol" she informed me "They attach to the leg of a Vanir armored suit when not in use. They are capable of firing energy bolts of some kind that stun a Human in one shot, similar to a Wraith hand blaster. My scans are incomplete, but I suspect that the technology behind these weapons are based on Ancient pulse weapons, like the ones that defend this ship".

The Vanir must have salvaged and back engineered some Ancient technology.

"Good work" I let Seven know "Now if you'll excuse me I need to talk to somebody about removing the Stargate from the Genii homeworld. We don't them nuking people".

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Milky Way Galaxy.**

"Are you sure about this" Miranda asked as I prepared to beam down.

I'd been invited by the IOA (The International Oversight Advisory (IOA) an United Nations authority that manages Earth's off world affairs) to attend a meeting to discuss the terms of an alliance. I suspected that the IOA were concerned about a still mostly unknown element flying around the galaxy in a powerful ship. I doubted the American military was pleased about it either. I knew this because if I was leader of this world, I'd be worried about the mostly unknown flying around in a ZPM powered warship.

"Might be a trap" she reminded.

One of my concerns was that the Tau'ri would try to seize my ship using some sort of justification, and that I'd spend the rest of this Jump in some kind of intellectual servitude. This I didn't want, and while I was sure that the Asgard would be very upset if this happened, well the Tau'ri could claim that I attacked them or something.

"I'm going down there to tell the IOA to back off and leave us alone" I informed Miranda Lawson "I just need to do in a way that makes them think they've somehow won something. The SGC isn't so bad. I might be willing to at least exchange some information with them".

While I had little experience dealing with the likes of the IOA. I wasn't totally naive about this sort of thing. I had seen Commander Shepard deal with the Illusive Man and the Citadel Council, and I'd handled a few bureaucrats in my time.

"Good thing you're taking your sexbot with you" the former Cerberus Operative commented.

I sighed upon hearing that. Cameron had become so much more than just a robot with an organic outer shell, and of course Miranda knew that. Still she liked to bring up that my Terminator had once been little more than a sexbot.

"And I'll be wearing our new armour" I let Miranda know

Once Seven had come to understand how the Vanir suits worked it hadn't been long before she and Tali started adapting the tech for our use. Now if we could only get some samples of Kull warrior armour, and incorporate that into our existing defences, then we'd have something really cool.

"Complete with kinetic barriers and a life support belt. I've also got an emergency beacon so you'll know if I get into trouble".

I was sure that Cameron had some surprises too.

"Listen if that worried you can raise the shields once we're gone, or cloak the ship" I offered

"Just be careful" Miranda urged.

Before I could reply my cybernetic bodyguard came into the room. Once I was sure she was ready we stepped onto the transporter platform, and signalled her to beam Cameron and I down.

(Line Break)

 **Stargate Command. Earth.**

"Why do you want met with the Jaffa?" asked General O'Neil.

I'd walked out on the meeting with the morons that made up the IOA. They been a bunch of arrogant assholes who'd dared to make demands of me. I was super tempted to transport them into my brig in order to teach them a lesson, but I didn't want to antagonise the people of this planet.

After the IOA I'd been escorted to O'Neil's office so that we could discuss my group's alliance with the SGC, which was technically under the jurisdiction of the IOA, but it was part of the US military so they weren't actually answerable to the IOA. This meant they could cut a separate deal with me.

So far our agreement was for mutual support, I would come to the aid of ship or team from Earth if they needed help, and they would do the same. Which if nothing else was a good start to a solid alliance.

"Part of my mission is to gather and study advanced technology" I explained to the air force officer "Now I could flying around the galaxy looking for Goa'uld technology, but it makes more sense to buy it from the Jaffa. I can trade them Naquadah.

Naquadah was a somewhat rare, super-dense mineral used by a wide number of different races. Its most basic use was that of a weapon. This was because Naquadah greatly amplifies energy, making it extremely potent if paired with explosives.

Due to its unique properties, Naquadah forms the basis for many advanced technologies; the Stargates themselves are composed almost entirely of Naquadah. Naquadah is also present in the bloodstream of the Goa'uld, which allows them to control their technologies and sense the presence of other symbiotes.

The Goa'uld have Naquadah mining operations on many planets; its refined form, weapons-grade Naquadah, is extremely valuable and could used as currency. Like some metals it couldn't be replicated, however the Elemental Furnace could produce the element, although it took a lot of matter to make even a small amount of Naquadah.

Weapons-grade Naquadah was so dense that two Jaffa are required to lift a quantity the size of a couple of common housing bricks, making it at least as dense as gold. Alternate forms of Naquadah include Liquid Naquadah, which was used to power the Goa'uld Staff weapons most often used by the Jaffa.

"If you've Naquadah we could do with some" the General mentioned "What kind of technology are you looking for".

Given that they needed to build more ships I could understand their need for the mineral.

"And any Trinium you have lying around would be nice" O'Neil added.

I gave this some thought.

"If you can get me some samples of Goa'uld technology then I'll trade a fair amount of Naquadah and Trinium"

While I couldn't be sure I was fairly certain that Tau'ri used a trinium-titanium alloy for the hull of their ships. Using the Elemental Furnace I could create these desired metals, but I would require large amounts of raw materials, but that was easily done. I could harvest raw materials from anywhere, like say the asteroid belts of this system.

"I'd still like to met with some of the leaders of the Jaffa" I said to O'Neil

With the Goa'uld empire collapsing because of the Replicators there's going to be a power vacuum, and while I didn't think any Jaffa nation was going to last, it would be to try to aid it, rather than let chaos rule.


	8. Chapter 8

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 8**

 **Aurora-class warship. Between Galaxies.**

The ship was currently crossing the massive void between two galaxies, and while this was an Ancient vessel powered by a hyperdrive, it was still a long trip, the vessel could have done in a few days, but it wasn't wise to tax the engines so it was actually going to take more than a week.

Not that I minded really, at this speed we made the USS Voyager seem like a mobility scooter. Plus this long, peaceful trip was giving me the time to sit down and do some planning. I had things to organise.

While I hadn't accepted the IOA's 'suggestion' that I take on some liaisons, who would no doubt be their spy, I was thinking over the idea of taking on some more crew. I was pretty sure that I could get people I wanted on board this ship as long as I offered the right thing in exchange.

Before I'd left Stargate Command I'd gotten personnel files on the kind of people who the security clearance to know that I existed. O'Neill seemed to like the idea of getting someone who worked for him aboard my ship, although in his case he might be doing just to annoy the IOA, as his people didn't answer that organisation.

There were many qualified people both in the SGC or who'd been part of the Atlantis expedition, but one name and face caught my attention. I so had to have her as part of my crew, and perhaps one day as a companion. If only because she was cute.

Jennifer Keller was born and raised in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, USA. A few years prior to her joining the Atlantis Expedition, her mother died and she was all her father had left. During her educational years, she was always ahead of her class, having graduated from her high school at the age of 15 and earned a Bachelor's degree before she was 18. After this, she spent six years in med school training to become a doctor. She graduated from medical school from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During this time, she made the mistake of confiding in her biology lab partner about her fear of the movie _Alien._ As a result he hid a live snake inside a cadaver she was working on as a joke. After she gained status as a medical professional, she then gained military clearance to the Stargate program; where she joined the Atlantis expedition. She was chosen by Dr. Elizabeth Weir, due to her experience in the medical field.

There was a lot more than that in the file, but those were the highlights. Not that it really mattered I'd already made up mind on one person I was going to take on board. Now I just had figure what to offer her in order to get her on my ship.

(Line Break)

 **M7G-677. Pegasus Galaxy.**

While I'd made a deal with Stargate Command to trade some minor bits of Goa'uld technology and contact with the Jaffa leaders, in exchange for large amounts of rare metals that they needed for ship building, something had gone wrong.

I was willing to make a fair deal, but those IOA fools had gotten involved and now they were bogging down the deal with needless details. Basically they wanted access to my technology as well as the minerals. They hadn't phrased it that way, but it was clear why they wanted to place a liason on my ship.

To make it clear that I wasn't going to do things their way I'd simply left, I'd give them some time to think things over while I carried on my work in the Pegasus galaxy. In this little corner of the universe there were plenty of cultures to make contact with, technologies to recover, and many worlds to explore.

Lucky for me the Ancients had been far easier to deal with, the Captain of the Aurora, whose ship and crew the Asgard had been able recover from their extended stay in stasis. He was far more reasonable towards outsiders, and he knew how to express gratuite.

This thanks included the gifting on information on the worlds of this galaxy, most of the information was out of date, but it was enough to give me an idea of where to go. I'd also gotten my hands on the Atlantis's expeditions mission logs. Cortana had hacked them during one of my visits to the city from the computers the remaining people from Earth used while working with the Ancients

"Hold on we are entering the dampening field" I announced.

Seven and I activated the counter field, which was a modification to the force field projected by our life support belts, to protect our technology from the Ancient dampening field's effects. This was a very important tech upgrade for Cameron as without she couldn't even enter the field, and it was almost as important for Seven as she might die without within the field.

Which would perhaps make it wiser for me to take Tali in here, but Seven was confident in her adjustments to our environmental shields, and of course she'd already tested them using our version of a MALP, which was basically like those used by the SGC, but it had its kinetic barriers and a small laser cannon mounted on it. Nothing to fancy in case it got captured and back engineered by someone.

"So how long will it take to replace the power source for this dampening field?" I asked Seven.

She considered this question for a few moments.

"No more than a few hours" she answered "I can not be certain without inspecting the device".

The dampening field which kept the natives of this world safe from cullings wasn't necessary any long, as such it was up to them to switch it off or not. The device was powered by a ZPM, however it was going to fail soon according the mission logs the Atlantis expedition had left in the city's database. We'd come here to replace that failing ZPM with a generator that would last longer.

Also I wanted to claim the ZPM as even a nearly depleted one would be of great value, it was even possible that we could learn to make our own. If we could then my group would not only have an incredible power source, but also the means to destroy entire worlds.

Before we could move more than a few meters inside the field several teenagers came out of the woods with war paint on their faces and bows pointed at us. Even without our new armour suits we wouldn't have been in danger as the arrows would be neutralised by our other defences.

"Hello," I greeted as I took off my helmet.

Hopefully they'd see me baring my face to them as a sign of trust. I figured that a helmeted person was bound to be more unsettling even for people who had a bunch of crossbows and slingshots ready to fire.

"We are not here to harm you in any way" Seven informed the children.

Given that we were strangers their concern over our presence was totally understandable.

"You're a full grown," commented one of the small humans.

I actually looked down at my own body as if I needed to confirm what the girl before me had just said.

"How very observant of you," Seven replied.

I smiled, hoping that it made me look friendly, and not at all creepy.

"My name is Gothic" I said, introducing myself to the children "This is Seven of Nine. We've come to speak to your leaders".

The kids lowered their weapons, slightly.

"You need to see the elders" one of the locals stated.

Indeed we did.

"Okay lead the way," I said.

We were led to a village that was up in the trees. As we waited for the children to climb up the rope ladder to the tree houses above Seven and I paid noticed a pile of artifacts that seemed to be of importance.

"It looks like a shrine," Seven commented "Very primitive".

The shrine was up of dead Wraith soldiers, their equipment, and some other materials.

"Wraith bones," said the child who led us here.

"Yeah we know," I said.

It was a shame I couldn't scan the shrine, but while we could keep our technology working in this field the dampening field still prevented scans from being taken.

"A Wraith bird fell out of the sky years ago. We keep it here to remind us of how life used to be," the boy explained.

That explained the odd lumps of something metal like that I didn't recognise. Since Wraith ships were in some sense living things it wouldn't actually be metal, but I couldn't find out for sure.

"The elders are ready," informed one of the teenagers.

We climbed up into the tree house to find the elders, who were all young adults.

"Hello I'm Gothic, this is Seven of Nine and Cameron" I introduced.

Not for the first time I wondered how odd our names sounded to people.

"I'm Keras one of the village elders," replied one of the teens.

I turned the local gesture of greeting when it was made at me.

"Please sit," invited Keras as he took off his head dress.

Seven and I sat down. Cameron remained standing, and ever watchful.

"We've come to tell you about the Wraith" I told the elders.

Even on a world that was safe from the space vampires, simply mentioning them caused fear to ripple through a crowd.

"We are familiar with the Wraith" said Keras. "They used to farm our planet as we used to farm livestock and beasts of burden only we were their herd. Our ancestors fought them, but our weapons were not strong enough. Our people tried to hide from them but they were always found".

Soon that would all be over. Future generations would never know the horror of a culling, and if the Ancients could regain some control over their former domain then perhaps major conflicts between humans could be avoided. At least in this galaxy.

"Then you'll be pleased to hear the Ancestors have return and then have used a device created long ago to ensure that there will be no more cullings" I informed the kids.

According to my Judgement Day perk no more worlds would suffer the horror of a culling. At least not in the next one hundred years, which was the length of time the perk extended, and this was important because the Wraith could hibernate for centuries at a time. It was possible that some of them might find somewhere to hide, sleep for more than hundred years, and then start culling worlds again. However plans were in motion to reduce that risk, and I would be involved in them.

"As you know there is a device left here by the Ancestors which stops the Wraith technology from working" I was now saying to the elders"But since the Wraith can no longer cull worlds you no longer need the device's protection. So if you wish we can turn the device off, or you can leave it on. If you chose to leave the device on we can install a new power source that will last for many years".

The elders all looked at each. I didn't doubt that words being exchanged despite the fact that nothing was actually being said.

"Even with the Wraith gone there are still dangerous people out there" I warned the young adults "You might want to keep the field up even without the threat of the Wraith".

They seemed to be doing just fine without much in the way of technology.

"We will need time to discuss this" one of older people told me.

There was no rush.

"Well return tomorrow" I told the elders.

There really was no rush, and what they had decide

(Line Break)

 **New Athos. Pegasus Galaxy.**

When the Ancients, or the Ancestors as they were known in these parts, had returned to their city, they'd forced the Athosians to also leave that world. The Ancients had selected a new world for Athosians, and being a resourceful people they'd managed to build a new home for themselves.

However shutting down the Stargate Network how allowed the safe use of the Janus's device, it did make it impossible for worlds to trade, so while I hadn't come here to gift the Athosians with easily replicated supplies, I was glad that I had.

What I'd actually come here for was to enlist the aid of Teyla with a special project that I had in mind. Not long after beaming down I found her in a tent thing, that was likely close to what my own ancestors would have used in centuries past, and I joined her for some tea as we began our discussions.

We'd come here from the planet full of kids and young adults, while there Seven had studied the device which was the cause of the dampening field. The elders had decided to keep the field up. That might prove wise in the long run, as the Asurans were still out there, and perhaps other meances with advanced tech.

"You are asking me to leave my people" she said.

I nodded before speaking,.

"Only for a short time" I told her "The Wraith have been prevented from culling anymore worlds, but this won't last forever, the Stargate network needs to be restored so worlds can trade with each other, which means turning off the device that is keeping any remaining Wraith ships trapped in whatever system they are in".

Telya understood the implications of this.

"So the cullings may resume" she said.

My perk told me otherwise, but that was because the Ancients had no intention of turning off the device until the Wraith were defeated. However the future wasn't fixed, things could change. So we needed to prepare.

"Yes" I said "One day, and battling the Wraith in the future would be a lot easier if we understood their technology. I have a plan to seize one of their cruisers. The problem is that the larger Wraith ships have some means of preventing those who are not Wraith from controlling them, but certain humans have a some Wraith DNA. You are one of those people".

Judging by the expression on her face she hadn't know this. Which wasn't surprising as the Siege of Atlantis, if it could be called that in this timeline, had happened sooner than expected.

As such there hadn't been a chance for Telya to discover her Wraith DNA, but it was important that she discover the truth, and I could help her do just that.

(Line Break)

 **Wraith Lab. Unknown Planet.**

"Anything interesting," asked Tali as I analyzed the data being holographically projected before me.

We were currently inside of an abandoned wraith laboratory, the address of which was obtained from one of Teyla's people. The old woman had told Teyla a story about the origin of her wraith sensing abilities. Apparently some of the villagers taken by the wraith on this planet had returned. Never having done so before the villagers were amazed and took it as a blessing, until the returned started mentioning hearing voices and in some cases even turning violent.

The other villagers massacred the returned but several had already been banished offworld so had survived. One of these surviving returned had been an ancestor of Teyla's. We already knew of Teyla's small bit of wraith DNA so knew some of what happened to the returned villagers. Now as I scanned the data being projected we would knew why.

Thanks to the It's All Kruvis To Me perk, I was able to read the Wraith, and while I knew some of this already, it was interesting to read about in detail. Of course I didn't understand the actual science behind these genetic modifications, however I did know enough of that science to know how complex it was to do correctly, and while there had been unforeseen side effects due to this Wraith's work, it had actually gone well for the most part.

This Wraith had a great understanding of both human and Wraith biology, his research was well worth copying, and I was sure that the Asgard who were working on their people's genetic problems wouldn't mind a look at this info. Of course they'd have to trade something for it, perhaps they could share the tech that allowed them to transmit holographic images over great distances.

"The scientist was blending a bit of wraith DNA with captured humans in an attempt to make their food source more compatible," I explained.

"He was trying to make their meals more tasty," asked Tali in surprise.

Well the Wraith wanted to make the feeding process more efficient too, as even with most of the species going into hibernation for centuries at a time there was never enough food to go around. That was why the Wraith had been so interested in getting to Earth.

"Basically yes, along with making the feeding process more efficient so they didn't have to feed as often" I explained to the Quarian engineer , repeating my thoughts out loud "The Wraith population was much too large and there simply wasn't enough humans to go around, which is why they were forced to hibernate for centuries".

Telya, who had agreed to aid me, at least for the time being, came closer so that she could hear more of what I had to say.

"Here is what I find most interesting" I said next "It appears the blending of the DNA gave these humans the ability to not only sense the wraith but to tap into the telepathic network that the Wraith use to communicate".

Telya kept her cool, but I could tell she was a little overwhelmed by all of this, and who could blame her?

"I wouldn't recommend trying to access it. The telepathic abilities of a full blooded wraith would be much stronger than yours" I added.

In the show Teyla's 'gift' was something she mastered, but given that we were in the process of wiping out the species it seemed pointless for her to try. Plus when she'd first started using it Wraith had been able to take over her body, and the results hadn't been pretty to say the least.

"Telya I know this a lot to take in" I said "But if this gift can allow you to control a Wraith ship then it's an opportunity we can not pass up".

Hopefully she'd be up for this as I really wanted a Wraith cruiser. I had a empty dock, with room for a small ship, and while I didn't intend to keep a Wraith ship in the long run, it would be well worth it to be able to study such a craft.

(Line Break)

 **Deep Space. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Wraith cruisers were typically seen escorting Hive ships during assaults or when feeding on a Human world. When their Hive ships are destroyed, the escorting cruisers typically abandon the battlefield by escaping into hyperspace. Beyond this role, they are also seen in the role of patrol ships that are sent to investigate disturbances near Wraith territory. They are also sent alone against Human worlds in order to cull its inhabitants that are incapable of mounting a defense against the vessel. Similar to other Wraith vessels, they apparently do not possess shields and instead rely on their organic hull to protect them from damage.

Finding a Wraith ship turned out to be easier than expected, they couldn't flee to hyperspace and journeys at less than light speed were pointless so those Wraith ships that had survived so far were just floating around. They were making no attempts to hide and several Hive ships as well as a few cruisers were within scanning range of Atlantis.

Sneaking up on a lone cruiser also proved to be simple. We simply dropped out of hyperspace early and snuck up on the cruiser while cloaked. Then Cameron and myself, along with a squad of robots, left my ship on a Jumper.

Once we were ready my warship de-cloaked, and as predicted the cruiser launched its darts, and when that happened I was able to board the Wraith ship.

(Line Break)

 **Wraith Cruiser. Pegasus Galaxy.**

After landing the cloaked Jumper in the small docking bay of this ship I saw a Wraith technician busy at a nearby console. Without pause I activated my own cloaking device and exited the craft along with Cameron.

The technician didn't hear or see my Terminator as she stepped up behind him and snapped his neck before taking the creature's stunner, no doubt she intended to add the weapon to her own armoury, or put it on display somewhere as a trophy. A habit she'd picked up off me.

Once the path was clear I ordered the robots out of the Jumper,and we began to the process of clearing out the cruiser, which didn't have a large crew according to the life signs detector I was carrying.

We quickly moved on me and small army of metal killers, who aside from Cameron were all Cortana's direct control. It was wise to keep the mechs under her power as more than once I'd seen mechs like these malfunction and go on a rampage.

The cruiser was tiny when compared to a Hive ship, but it still had decent sized crew, and while some on the Wraith warriors had been fed on by the higher ranking Wraith, there were still plenty of them for us to shoot at.

Before the bodies even hit the ground they disintegrated. There would be no stunning the Wraith on this mission. Our disruptor rifles were set on disintegrate mode so in one shot the targets just vanished. This way there was no chance of any on the space vampires healing themselves and attacking us later.

While under personal cloaks, which didn't prevent us from seeing each other, we made it a quarter of a way to the bridge before we were discovered, and an alarm went off. The shrill noise was not only loud, but also painful to hear, once my helmet had filtered it out for the most part, I wondered if that was by design.

The plan called for us to reach the bridge as quickly as possible in case the Wraith commander in charge of this ship, whose judgement might be impaired by hunger, decided to risk jumping to hyperspace.

Of course the weapons of my ship would be used in an attempt to disable the engines of the Wraith vessel if that happened, but I wasn't going to depend on that working as while Miranda could somewhat command the ship, she didn't have the fine control I did and might not be able to hit the hyperdrive. So we rushed to the bridge.

As the Wraith stunners dissipated against my armour I dropped the cloak in favour of the shield, I'd done this as the cloak had not been working and my armour could only handle so many blasts before the energy started reaching my body.

The Wraith were either using some psychic sense to detect us or a more mundane sense that was different enough from a human's to find us. That sense hadn't worked for the technician whose neck Cameron had snapped, but that might be because he'd been distracted by his work.

Weapon's fire from Wraith energy stunners dissipated harmlessly as they met our shields, and when the remaining warriors made use of what cover their was we made use of our grenades. The screams of dying Wraith would have been music to my ears if not for the fact that it had been drowned by explosions.

When my team finally reached the bridge we quickly took out any Wraith present. Then the real hard work began. Because of the jamming, we couldn't beam on or off the ship, so we needed to disable the jamming as quickly as possible so that more robots could be beamed onto the ship. Then we could take out the remaining Wraith with overwhelming numbers.

With that in mind I attempted to get Cortana to interact with what passed for Wraith computers. They were biotech so I doubted she'd able to do much, but all she had to do was disable the jamming, and then we could beam Teylor on board, and she could interact with the ship's systems.

(Line Break)

 **Wraith Cruiser. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"It appears that I can control this ship" Teyla informed me "I can feel the systems now at my command, but it may take me some time to understand exactly how to use them".

This was good news. Cortana had been unable to do much of anything despite being rather good at hacking computers. But that wasn't surprising given that this was all biotech of some kind. We were lucky enough to have been able to switch the jamming off.

When that had happened it had been a simple matter to deal with the rest of the crew as I'd been able to beam over more mechs, they might be cheap security droids made from Mass Effect level technology, but they'd been more than a match for Wraith warriors who didn't seem to have much in the way of fighting skills.

"Don't worry" I assured Teyla "You don't have to fly this thing we'll tow it to the space dock, and we can study it once we're there. All you'll need to do is keep the lights on, and maybe activate some systems".

Naturally we couldn't just fly this ship to my space dock as it would explode should we attempt to enter hyperspace. However it should be fine if we used a tractor beam to tow it through hyperspace. Of course I didn't intend for anyone to be on board this vessel when we entered hyperspace just in case something went wrong.

I wasn't too worried if the ship did break while getting towed as I didn't think I'd keep in the long run, but it would keep Seven of Nine busy for a while, and once it had been fully studied I could always trade it to one of my allies.

"Gothic!" called out a voice over the radio "There's still a few of those darts in the hanger bay. Guess they didn't have enough pilots".

I'd sent Miranda down to the dart bay and Tali to what passed for engineering on this ship. Seven and Cameron were searching the rest of the vessel for anything of interest.

"Cool" I said "We'll keep one for study and hand over the rest to our allies as gifts".

Might as well throw the Tau'ri a bone, so to speak.

"We'll do a full accounting later" I said next "For now let's back to our ship and tow this thing to the space dock".

(Line Break)

 **Wraith Cruiser. Space Dock.**

Seven of Nine was not one to easily give up, however she was tempted to now as her current work was highly frustrating. Partly this was her own fault as she hadn't regenerating as often as she should.

Currently she was attempting to not only to come to an understanding about how Wraith technology worked, but also to come with a method of controlling the captured Wraith Cruiser. Even with access to technology and knowledge gathered from different universes this task was proving beyond even Seven's great skills.

Which wasn't to say she hadn't been totally unsuccessful, which the aid of a native of this galaxy who was called Teyla, the cyborg had been able to activate and to some extent control, several secondary systems, as well as life support. But systems such as sublight engines, weapons, sensors, and hyperdrive could not be accessed.

No Borg, in or out of the Collective, had been held back by a simple matter of biology since their war with Species 8476, back then no drone had been able to assimilate even the smallest bit of that race's biotechnology.

Seven of Nine closed her tricorder, which she'd been used to scan what seemed to be some sort of fluid system that transmitted electrical impulses as information, and then moved her arm towards the nearest control console.

Two small tubes sprung out from her wrist, she was in a sense now attempting to assimilate the Wraith cruiser using her nanoprobes, although it would not become part of the Borg Collective, as that did not exist in this universe.

She'd never attempted to assimilate anything this large or complex before and while the process had barely begun, she was already starting to feel the effects. More and more of her nanoprobes left her body and began to alter the Wraith ship in small but noticeable ways.

Controls were reconfigured in both form and function, making them not only much easier to use, but also more recognisable as controls. Behind the scenes, systems were altered and Seven's nanoprobes make new connections, and systems that been dormant came online as they no longer required any sort of mental control in order to be used.

The work was completed even sooner than Seven had expected, which was good for her because her body required nanoprobes, without them she'd die, and while she hadn't given up so many that meant her death, her body wasn't able to cope with the sudden loss, and she passed out.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Space Dock.**

While the sickbay of this ship had been used before, and wasn't at all staffed, it was more or less functioning, and thanks to Voyager's EMH I had enough medical training to figure out that Seven really just needed some rest as well as few helpings of that horrible excuse for food she called, nutritional supplements.

I soon realised that this could have been much worse, and that my crew needed a proper Doctor, I would have to return to Earth sooner than expected and try to recruit Jennifer Keller. I should be able to offer both her and the people she answered to some sort of incentive. Perhaps cures for some of their more deadly diseases.

As far as I could tell the nanoprobes that Seven required to function had been greatly depleted in number, they were now making efforts to replicate using energy and materials taken from Seven. While the nanoprobes were each mircosophic in size there were so many of them that their attempts to replicate had harmed Seven, thankfully they were also repairing her now that their numbers were being restored.

Seven of Nine's fluttered open and she returned to the world of the living. I wanted to yell at her for being so reckless, but I quickly found that I didn't have in me to berate her like she was a child. However I didn't let her off easy.

"Don't ever do that again" I firmly ordered.

At this point I started feeling rather emotional about the whole thing, and it would total ruin my image as bad ass if anyone saw me getting upset, so I quickly left the room.


	9. Chapter 9

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 9**

 **Planet. Pegasus Galaxy.**

While it was my intention to return to the Milky Way in order to gather Goa'uld technology for study, there was no rush as most of their stuff was just ripped off from the Ancients anyway, and I'd decided to check out a few more things in this galaxy before leaving. After all why rush, I had ten years in this universe.

The Wraith would be dealt with by the Ancients and the Asgard without my aid, and there was so much to see in this universe that I wanted to get on with things. Hence why I'd gone into the Ancient's database and found this world.

This planet was important as it was home to another city-ship. I had no intention of seizing the city-ship, mostly because I didn't have the manpower or the resources to make use of one, however I had no intention of leaving this world before dealing with the cruel idiots who used the city-ship's weapons to oppress the local villagers. They didn't need the Tower to protect them from the Wraith so there was no sense letting the Tower stay active.

"Let us go greet these villagers," said Teyla before leading the way.

Cameron, Teyla, Miranda and I headed into the nearest village. I let Teyla do the talking as the villagers informed us of their daily lives.

It was all as I'd expected, The Lord Protectorate ruled from the Tower, the city-ship's main spire. If the villagers did not comply with his wishes a drone was sent forth as a demonstration of the Lord Protectorate's power.

Just like from canon I interfered in the attempted abuse of of a villager by the Tower's soldiers in the place of John Sheppard to get myself taken before the Lord Protector. Which was of course all part of my plan.

There was a slight issue with Cameron wanting to come along, but I managed to sort that about explaining to the guards that she was servant. It was good for them that they accepted this as if they'd tried to stop Cameron from following me they would have been in for a world of pain.

(Line Break)

 **The Tower. Pegasus Galaxy.**

As I looked around the lavishly decorated control room the Lord Protector and his entourage came in. I could already tell the Lord was dying from the poisons administered by his court genealogist, Otho, who'd made a deal with the Lord's son.

Which was in exchange for killing the Lord Otho would receive the hand of the beautiful Mara in marriage. While waiting I amused myself by imagining what I could do to these "royals" of the Tower when I was through playing nice.

I wasn't going to do anything to explosive as Seven would want to study the city-ship in great detail, and I wouldn't simply slaughter everyone, as tempting as it was to humble these prats, violence wasn't always the solution. Besides I'd done enough killing.

"You there…approach," instructed the Lord as he pointed at me.

Slowly I stepped forward.

"I am Captain Gothic," I said in order to introduce myself "I'm a visitor to your world".

The Lord Protector shifted in his control chair.

"I know who you are. I saw you in the village. I see all that I need to see within my domain," explained the Lord Protector as he brought up a real time holographic feed of the village "Your friends…they are concerned about you".

Indeed they were, but they need not have worried, I was in little to no danger. All I'd have to do was press a button on omni-tool and Cortana would ensure that I would be beamed up back on board my ship.

Besides these fools hadn't even taken all my weapons from me, and nothing other the drones the Lord Protector controlled could harm Cameron and I because of our super duper new armour.

"They have cause to be concerned since I seem to be a prisoner," I replied.

"A show of force was necessary for the benefit of the villagers. It keeps them from getting ideas" said the ruler of this world "But for the moment I would prefer if you thought of yourself as my guest".

Alas for him I'd be a poor guest.

"Father I must object. This man should be punished" spoke up a person who if I remembered correctly was the Lord's son "He challenged one of our constables".

"One of our constables," asked the Lord.

"Forgive me…one of your constables," replied the younger man.

Clearly there was some friction between these two men. That would have been clear to me even without me seeing the episode.

"Gothic it would be my pleasure that you dine with us this evening," said the Lord.

I nodded in acceptance of his offer, while wondering what was on the menu.

(Line Break)

 **The Tower. Pegasus Galaxy.**

During dinner I sat beside a young lady called Mara during dinner. She was the only one who seemed to not be sucking down food like they were starving, and as a result was one of the few people who actually spoke during the meal.

Mara, who was pretty much a princess, was constantly smiling at me, her attempts to flirt were crude, but I wasn't offended.

"Captain Gothic, why do you have two names?" asked Mara.

Apparently surnames were a thing on this planet. Which I thought was odd as nobles usually make a big deal about having the right family name.

"Captain is a title given to the commander of a ship" I explained to the young woman "You can just call me Gothic".

My military rank was actually Lieutenant-Commander. I was still an Alliance Officer after all. But the title of Captain was starting to grow on me.

"Yes, Gothic" Mara said with a smile.

Our dinner conversation was interrupted as the Lord of this place began to have a coughing fit. While everyone was distracted I used the Asgard stone to aid my memory and perfectly recalled that a man called Otho, who was a member of the court, was the one poisoning the Lord Protector. Since this was months earlier than when Shepard was suppose to come here I could only conclude that poisoning had been going on for a while, and it was being drawn out for some reason. Perhaps to make it look like a natural illness.

"My Lord," Otho cried out in what I knew to be false sincerity.

"Stop it…leave me be," ordered the Lord.

He failed about in an effort to push the bald man away, but totally failed.

"Take him to his chambers," Otho command of some servants.

Once the leader of this place was gone things began to calm down.

"What's wrong with him," I asked.

I had to pretend that I didn't know.

"He will be alright…it isn't the first time this has happened," Otho answered before leaving.

And unless I put a stop it, then it wouldn't be the last time either.

(Line Break)

 **The Tower. Pegasus Galaxy,**

I returned to my quarters to await a visitor that I knew was coming.

"Am I disturbing you," asked Mara as she arrived in my chambers.

The noble had changed in what I guessed to be some sort of causal evening wear, but it was barely any less ornate than what she'd worn during dinner. All that jewelry and frilly stuff had to be heavy.

"Most definitely not, how's your father," I asked as I stood.

"He's resting" Mara told me "thank you for your concern".

No one spoke for a moment or two.

"There's a matter of great importance my father wishes to discuss with you, perhaps in the morning he will be well enough to grant you a proper audience" Mara was now saying "Until then perhaps there is something I could do to make you more comfortable".

The room was well decorated, and comfortable looking, plus with Cameron right outside I wasn't in danger.

"What did you have in mind," I asked.

Mara's reply was to undo a few fastenings in order to reveal that she had on absolutely nothing underneath. Her body was in good shape, and she had a good level of hygiene, so I wasn't worried about catching anything from her.

She quickly pressed her lips against mine as her hand caressed my cheek. No more words were needed as the naked Mara jumped me, driving me back on the bed. Yet despite our arms being all over the place we managed to get me undressed

As I pulled my shirt over my head Mara guided her eager wet pussy over my hard length of man meat. Apparently foreplay wasn't on the menu tonight.

While I let Mara work herself up and down on my shaft I simply relaxed, only wondering for a moment if my companions would object to me sleeping with this woman, but it shouldn't be an issue as while they weren't allowed to sleep with anyone outside of the group I'd never accepted that limitation.

With that in mind I was able to fully relax and let this sluttly excuse for a princess show me how eager she was to please.

(Line Break)

 **The Tower. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"Well this had to be quickest revolution in history" I commented as the nobles who had ruled this world were being rounded up "I wonder if they'll be any executions?".

If there were going to be then I should do something to help out Mara, she might be a useless toff, but I'd banged her, and it would be a bit wrong of me to let her die after spending a night with her. Beside saving her life wouldn't be too much trouble, I had no intention of adding her to my crew, she lacked the skills to be useful to me in that way, but I could take to another planet, and let the locals deal with her. I could easily pay someone to take in.

"Should we not do something to prevent that?" asked Teyla.

I didn't feel motivated to.

"The rulers of this world have been using the tower to oppress the people here for thousands of years" I said to the Pegasus native "they've been living in luxury while the peasants lived in poverty, and I've seen these people eat, they have feasts while everyone outside of the Tower barely has enough to eat. Then there's been the Lord Protector's demonstrations. I have no sympathy for them".

My only interest was getting to study the city-ship, and once the lower classes had taken control of the tower it should be a simple matter for me to arrange access. All I had to was offer them stuff like food, clothes, and other supplies. They were a practical people and would see the sense in becoming my allies.

As for Telya, well I didn't really need her anymore, so I figured that it was time to return her to her people, along with some supplies as a way of thanking her for her services.

(Line Break)

 **The Tower. Pegasus Galaxy.**

As I sat in the control chair of this might vessel I became aware of it in ways few people could ever understand, I learned more about the amazing city-shops, and what they could do, simply by sitting in this chair that I could have with days of normal investigation.

City-ships were perhaps the most impressive technological marvel known to have been created by the Ancients, and this was a race that had spread Stargates over whole galaxies, and had mastered terraforming. They'd even built ships, such as the Destiny, that was still flying around despite having been launched from Earth so long ago.

In shape they were snowflake-shaped behemoths, stretching kilometers in diameter, and they had an internal volume comparable to every building in Manhattan. Which sounded impressive to be despite the fact that I had no idea how many buildings their were in Manhattan, and nor did I have clue how much internal space they had.

Capable of intergalactic travel via a powerful stardrive, one of these craft crossed the 3.5 million light year gulf between the Milky Way and Pegasus, and they could all do if they were fully powered and in working order. Crossing the massive void between galaxies in less than a human life time was an impressive achievement, and I should know as I'd done it twice.

At their best the city-ships were powered by three Zero Point Modules, devices which contained vast amounts of energy, but this vessel wasn't as ZPMs were rare these days, no one knew how to make them, not even the Ancients living in Atlantis as the construction of ZPMs hadn't been common knowledge. Thankfully for the remaining Ancients the Asgard had ways of generating energy that were good enough to keep Atlantis running.

The main defensive systems of a city-ship were the drone weapons, some of which were taking from this place so that my ship would remain fully armed, and an all-encompassing shield, but the city had other ways of defending itself, not that I had much idea of what they were, however I did know that they could cloak in order to hide from attackers.

Since these city-ships were not airtight, when the city-ship went into space a shield must be active in order to hold in the atmosphere, otherwise everyone within the city-ship would suffocate before long. Also the same applied to the heat, but that was less of concern as everyone would die from lack of air before they could freeze to death.

City-ships carried a complement of smaller ships, dubbed "puddle jumpers" by John Sheppard, and this city-ship was no exception, but since I had a docking bay full of them I had no use for the small craft stored here.

Like Atlantis this city-ship had many systems, including long-range sensors, internal transporters, and sophisticated computer systems. There were also systems that I simply didn't understand the purpose anymore than a medieval knight would understand the purpose of a USB stick.

As to why I was spending my day sitting in the control chair, well that was because Seven of Nine wanted to study this amazing piece of Ancient technology, and since that was going to take some I could end up sitting in this chair for a good long while. I couldn't leave because she needed to me keep the systems online while she figured out what they were.

The central nexus of command within a City-ship was the control tower, which was the single tall spire in the center of the vessel. And that was the only part of this city-ship that was occupied, the rest was below ground and not very safe.

Inside the tower was the control room (in Atlantis while it was occupied by the Atlantis expedition this where Stargate Operations was based) and normally it was the location the crew controlled the ship from.

This part of the city-ship contained such locations as the hologram room, conference room and the leader's office. The Stargate was also located here if the City-ship had one, and for some reason this one didn't. Controls for dialing the Stargate, raising or lowering the Stargate shield and main city shield, activating the cloaking device, and many other functions were normally located here.

While this was the primary point of control for the ship, there was also an Auxiliary control center located deep inside the city. The Control chair was the main method of activating and operating the city's Stardrive, and could also be used to control and configure some of the city's systems; in theory, the Control chair could also be used as a backup command center, although only one person can use the chair at any one time.

For some reason the control chair of this city-ship was located within the main spire, and had been used as a throne by the Lord Protectors over the centuries, until I'd turned up and helped bring an end to that arrangement.

These vessel's internal sensors allowed for the detection of individuals or objects inside the city. However, if power was shut down in a certain area then the sensors in that grid were offline and became incapable of providing information to the control room.

Another aspect of this sensor grid was the biometric sensor which was capable of detecting irregularities in biometric rhythm and reporting them to the system. This made it similar to a Life signs detector; however, this more powerful city-based sensor was capable of discerning alien lifeforms from human, and reporting to the crew the presence of these aliens in the city. However, it required a significant amount of power to operate (though it was possible to focus the scanning field to certain parts of the city, thus reducing power requirements drastically)

I was messing about with that, watching life signs, made up of my crew and some the locals who'd moved into the Tower.

Once I got bored of that I brought the long range sensors online, they worked as Seven had installed our generators to support the nearly drained ZPM, and to my delight I found something. A lone ship, not Ancient, nor Wraith, and I didn't think it was Asgard either as the scanners informed that the ship didn't have high energy levels. It might be the Earth ship Daedalus, but I suspected that it was someone else, and I was going to go find out.

(Line Break)

 **Traveller Ship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

This was not how I'd intended things to go. When we'd located a small traveller fleet I'd been very happy as they were not easy to track down, if they had been the Wraith would have wiped them out a long time ago. But things in this galaxy were changing, even the Travellers, who must mostly keep to themselves, had noticed the lack of cullings, and the fact the Wraith ships were staying put.

We'd found them, and rather than run, or shoot at us, the Travellers had invited me to beam onto one of their vessels, only it had turned out to be a trap, as soon as I'd transported on board I'd gotten stunned. Apparently those particle weapons the Travellers used were powerful to blast through my defences, it had take more a few shots to stun me, but they'd managed it and boy had it hurt.

How they'd take down Cameron was a bit of a mystery. I hoped she was okay. I had asked about her, however the gentlemen who was currently in my cell wanted to be the one asking the questions.

"Here's how we are going to do this. I'm going to ask you questions and you're going to give me answers. Is that simple enough for you," said my captor

Of course I'd used the Asgard stone to refresh my memories on the Travellers before coming on board so I knew that this guy was named Silas.

"Sure thing Silas," I agreed.

I could tell Silas was surprised I knew his name but shook it off. No doubt he figured that I'd overheard it from some one

"Who are you? Where are you from? And where did you get your ship," questioned Silas.

"My name is Gothic. I'm from a galaxy far far away in another dimension, and I got my ship from what you'd call an ascended being," I answered.

Thinking I was lying Silas punched me in the stomach. I had to admit that this guy was tough. I actually felt the blow despite the armour I was wearing. They not been able to remove anything other than the helmet, and Silas really should have punched me in the face.

"Now that was a mistake" I said

With my biotic abilities I hit Silas hard enough that he dropped to the floor unconscious.

Several minutes later the door to this makeshift brig opened to reveal the beautiful leader of my captors, Larrin.

"Hello Larrin," I greeted as I sat on the nearby bunk.

While waiting for her I'd amused myself with my omni-tool, which was part of my body armour these days.

"Check Silas," Larrin ordered one of her underlings.

Silas was quickly dragged out of the brig.

"What…you aren't going to ask how I knew your name," I asked.

"How…how did you do that," asked Larrin.

"You'll find I can do a lot of things Larrin," I replied "But if your referring to your friend Silas I knocked him with my biotic abilities".

A moment later my hand was surrounded by blue energy.

"We need to talk," I told her as I stood up "And I'd much prefer that we do so the civilized way".

(Line Break)

 **Traveller Ship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

After following Larrin to the mess hall I sat at the table opposite her. I didn't even touch the food she offered in case it was drugged.

"I'll cut to the chase. We both have something the other wants," I began by saying. "You want my help in developing an interface for controlling a Lantian battleship so that your people will have a nice big ship to live in. And you know that I can control Ancestor technology because you saw that I have a Lantain battleship of my own. So you need my help, and you can't force to help you because if I wanted to I could rip this ship apart with my powers".

Now that got her attention, just as I'd known it would, and it looked as if she believed me, which was good because I couldn't actually rip this craft apart with my biotic abilities.

"I'm willing to help you" I told her "In fact there's a lot my people can do for you. In exchange I want some of those cool guns of yours".

The traveller leader seemed to think things over.

"You're Lantian," Larrin incorrectly concluded.

I shook my head.

"No but I do know where you can find some Lantains" I told her "I am an advanced human, and I do have the gene they have, but I'm not from this galaxy".

I figured that things would take some time to explain, but that I could convince this woman that an alliance with me was in her best interest. I wanted to open up trade between my group and her people, if only so I could get my hands on a few of those cool particle weapons that they carried.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

While I didn't have much time until my meeting with the captain's of the Traveller ships, we needed to finalise the terms of our alliance, as well as finish trading vast amounts of supplies, for the tech I wanted, I still spared a few moments to let Seven brief on what she'd learned about the Travellers so far.

To this end I made my way to one of her labs, which she was using to go over the scans of Traveller ships we'd able able to take so far. She didn't waste any time greeting me, she simply got on with things.

"The Travelers are a technologically advanced race of Humans in the Pegasus galaxy who have escaped being culled by the Wraith by hiding aboard generational ships which travel throughout the Pegasus galaxy" she started by saying "The Travellers began as a race of humans who decided to escape the Wraith by launching themselves into space, thereby making it impossible for them to be pinned down in one place. Since then they have remained aboard their ships, landing as needed for supplies but otherwise keeping on the move. However, without a home base and with virtually no other advanced civilizations in the galaxy to trade with, they have been forced to improvise in order to maintain their fleet. As such, they cannot build new ships, and those that remain are often repaired using mismatched components and haphazard reconstruction".

Which was why they'd been willing to kidnap anyone they could find who had the ATA gene, they badly needed their Aurora class working. It could house hundreds of people, maybe as many as a thousand if they were really squeezed in.

"According to the database I was able to download The Travellers are led by a Governing Council which makes all major decisions pertaining to the race as a whole such as alliances and decisions of war" Seven told me "However in reality individual ship captains have the real power when it comes to deciding what the fleet will or will not do".

Which was why I was dealing with the captains, this council would just slow things down and the Travellers couldn't afford not to have me as an ally.

"Traveler technology is relatively advanced compared to that of most other Pegasus civilizations" Seven was now saying "They have hyperspace-capable starships, hand-held and ship-mounted energy weapons, as well as shielding technology. Curiously, Traveler technology is different from most FTL-capable races in this universe as it is not based on the use of crystals, but on more primitive wires and chips".

I'd noticed that to, it suggested that the Travellers had before taking to the stars, been developing technology much like that used on Earth.

"Did they send you the blueprint for their handheld energy weapons?" I asked Seven.

I couldn't hide the eagerness in my voice.

"They have" shed answered "And I have already began my study of the technology"

I could tell that she was about to lecture me some more.

"The particle magnum has the appearance of a long-barreled revolver. The cylinder of the weapon is a power cell with a luminescent dome on the back" she started by saying "The cell has a finite amount of energy, but can be removed to be recharged or replaced".

I wasn't really listening I was too busy imagining myself in my cool new armour, blasting aliens with a particle magnum.

"The barrel of the gun has three small crystals of increasing size from bottom to top. The weapon has three settings: stun, kill, and incinerate" Seven said, rambling on "The toggle is on the barrel just in front of the cylinder, and the cylinder colour changes to indicate the setting: red is for stun, white is for the other settings".

"When set on stun, the particle magnum can render the target unconscious for several hours with just a single shot, making it far more potent than a Wraith stunner. When set to kill, it can kill humans and Wraith in a single blast. The incinerate setting can put a 25 centimeter hole in most materials with a single shot, though it takes multiple shots to blast through denser materials" she then said.

This was when Cortana informed me that the Traveller captains were ready to speak with me.

"I've got to go" I informed the former borg drone "While I'm gone could you and Tali, please build one of those particle magnums for me".

Seven agreed to attempt the task, and I couldn't help hugging her, then I remembered that she didn't much care for that sort of thing so I quickly left the room.


	10. Chapter 10

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 10**

 **Aurora-class warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"That's wonderful news Supreme Commander" I said to the hologram the high ranking Asgard was currently projecting on to the bridge of my ship "Hopefully with all the Vanir in custody you'll be able to use their knowledge to save your race".

As it turned out the evil Asgard hadn't been very many in number, only a few hundred, and their technology was no match for the Asgard of the Ida galaxy, as such the Vanir had all been arrested, their ships either destroyed or confiscated, and their weapons taken away.

Given their advanced technology, and total disregard for human life, it was a good thing they were no longer free to act as they wished. While I understood their desire to destroy the Wraith, I didn't think that they would have simply gone and settled down on some nice world once the space vampires were gone. They might have enslaved the humans of the Pegasus galaxy, or at the very least have kept experimenting on them.

As for the material gains from defeating the Vanir, that didn't concern me much, I'd gotten what I wanted. Mostly that had been their fancy armour, which we'd not only had enough sets of for our uses, but we already modified.

"For now the rebuilding of our race must take priority" Thor let me know "however a few of my people will be remaining behind in Atlantis in order to aid the Ancients with their restoration efforts. Should you ever require our aid, you can contact me from Atlantis".

I nodded to signal that I understood what had just been said. And I also understood why the little grey guys were leaving. With the Vanir locked up and the Wraith pinned down the Ancients should be able to handle affairs in the this galaxy. They'd done so for a couple of million years before the Wraith took over.

No doubt there were other threats out there, such as the Asurans, but it was best to let sleeping dogs lie. The Asurans hadn't bothered anyone for ten thousand years, and while the Asgard had an effective anti-replicator weapon, which was technology they'd shared, there was really no justification for a first strike on the replicators.

Besides the Asgard had problems of their own, even if they were able to save their race from their genetic problems, it was only a short term solution, they needed to stop cloning themselves and maybe start having kids again. Also their empire had to be shambles after spending so long fighting the replicators.

"I forwarded your request to the High Council concerning your request for more technology in exchange for information you took from the Wraith concerning biological experiments" Thor said next "I have been authorised to install long range communctions on your ship that should allow you to remain in contact with your allies. This technology will be installed the next time you visit Atlantis".

Alas no shield upgrades, assuming I even needed them, but long range communctions could come in handy.

"There is one thing" I told Thor "I took possession of a few darts. I thought you might like one for study, consider it a gift to your people, and if you wouldn't mind could you drop one for the Tauri, we're heading that way ourselves, but you can make the trip much faster".

Thor tilted his head, and then closed the channel, a moment later Miranda informed me that two Wraith darts had been beam off the ship. This pleased me as they'd been cluttering up the docking bay.

(Line Break)

 **Stargate Command. Earth.**

Given what had happened to last time I'd gone on a diplomatic mission I was lucky that Cameron had even let me beam down to the SGC, but in reality there wasn't much she could do to stop me from doing whatever the hell I wanted.

Touring the SGC was one of things I'd always wanted to do. It didn't give me the same level of nerd happiness that I would have liked, those IOA bureaucrats kept spoiling things by trying to make me attend pointless meetings, but it was still somewhat of a thrill to see this base in person.

I'd actually been here before, but during my first visit I'd not been able to see much, again because of the IOA, whose existence seemed totally pointless since all they did was get in people's way. However this time I was getting to see it all.

That had included a trip to Area 51, which sadly had been lacking in any crashed flying saucers, but I had seen the Tau'ri attempt at making spacecraft. I'd not been very impressed. They could handle R&D, but their shipyard was rather substandard, building space ships in underground hangers wasn't a very good idea.

The main reason why I'd been taken there was because the IOA were eager for technology exchange, but they didn't really have anything I wanted.

Sure they had some captured Gou'ald tech that Seven might want to study, once she was done going over the data we'd gathered about Ancient city-ships and everything else we'd gathered so far. But that would take a while as not only did we have many samples of Ancient and Asgard tech to go over, but also Traveller technology, and there was still much about Wraith biotech that needed to be understood.

"The Death Glider was really interesting" I said.

I didn't have much use for fighters as I had no one to fly them, but still they were cool to look at.

"What about the 302s?" he asked.

The X-302 was the pre-production designation of the F-302, Earth's second attempt at constructing a combat-capable spacecraft. It was developed using recovered alien technology at Area 51. Unlike the X-301 Interceptor the X-302 was constructed entirely from technology designed and built here on Earth.

Its form and wing orientation were based on those of Goa'uld Death Gliders like the one the X-301 was built from. It was powered by a pair of jet engines modified with aerospike boosters for high altitude maneuvers. It also possess a rocket booster for additional thrust in outer space.

Unlike other Earth jet fighters the X-302 was designed with inertial dampeners, allowing the pilot to accelerate and maneuver much more quickly than would ordinarily be possible. The X-302 also incorporated a Naquadria-based hyperspace window generator, intended to make it Earth's first interstellar vehicle. However the hyperspace engine didn't really work.

"It was okay" I told him.

Jack put his hands in his pockets and then raised his eyebrows.

"I'm guessing that something's bothering you?" he said.

With some effort I resisted the urge to sigh.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, General" I was now saying "The X-302 is an amazing piece of reverse-engineered technology and is a quantum leap above anything else on this planet"

O'Neill was rather good at reading people. I tried to hide my concern, but he could clearly sense it.

"And?" he asked.

I'd tried to be diplomatic. When that failed I went for honesty.

"How many of these things do you have?" I asked back.

I doubted it was enough.

"A few squadrons" he admitted "Here on Earth, the Daedalus carries a squadron too, and so will the new ships".

I gave this some thought.

"So should you lose the Ancient outpost in Antarctica then all that stands between the people of Earth and alien invaders is a couple of Daedalus class ships, and a few squadrons of fighters".

That wasn't good enough, and I could tell that O'Neil understood what I was saying.

"How much does each 302 cost to build?" I wondered.

The General gave it some thought.

"Oh, I don't know. I'd say… a lot" he said.

I'd could find out the exact cost of materials and labour later on, for now I needed other details.

"Are they are match for enemy fighters?" was my next question.

I did have a memory of the battle when the Tau'ri and the forces of Anubis, but that wasn't much help.

"You'd have to talk to Carter for the details, but I do know that the missiles the F-302s carry have been enhanced with naquadah, and can take down a Death Glider" the General said "And if the reports I'm getting on that dart thing you sent us are right, our fighters outclass Wraith fighters too".

While it was unlikely that the Wraith Hive Ship would ever reach Earth, if by some cruel twist of fate one did, such a craft could deploy hundreds of darts.

"But how many missiles can each F-302 carry and what are chances of each one hitting a Death Glider? Realistically hitting I mean, in combat conditions, when there's weapon's fire everywhere and it's all as confusing as hell?. And why do F-302s only have missiles as weapon systems? What happens when they run out of missiles? Death Gliders have energy weapons?".

Since we had now reached his office the General sat behind his desk.

"They do have twin mounted railguns" he told me.

Railguns were good, but they weren't a match for energy weapons. Now that the Replicator invasion was over it was unlikely that the Goa'uld would attack Earth, but before long it would the Free Jaffa Nation in charge of those ships, and not all of them were friendly with Earth. Plus Baal was still out there, and he might have enough military might to invade the planet. And of course there was the Lucian Alliance, which again had plenty of Goa'uld hardware.

"Somehow I don't think it's going to be enough" I said.

"So… what do you suggest?" he asked.

I gave the matter some thought.

"Get me the blueprints for your fighter, an inventory of parts, a list of expenses and a workshop" I requested.

O'Neil looked confused.

"Trust me you'll like the results" I assured the base's commanding officer.

(Line Break)

 **Stargate Command. Earth.**

Despite the IOA's objections and their desire to limit what influence a certain ship's captain had over this, and other galaxies, O'Neill had decided to introduce a leader of the Jaffa to Gothic. To this end he'd sent Teal'c offworld to pick up his old mentor.

"So this Gothic wishes to speak with leaders of the Free Jaffa" Bra'tac asked.

The Jumper had attempted to set up this meeting some time ago, but as always the damn bureaucrats had gotten in the way.

"He does," the General confirmed "At the moment he's assisting us with our space fighter program, him and some woman called Tali'Zorah, whose apparently a member of an alien race called the Quarians. Gothic pointed out a few problems with the existing setup, and is attempting to fix it. I take it that you two would like to meet him after he's done replacing what used to be Earth's most advanced fighter?"

Bra'tac exchanged looks with his fellow Jaffa, and then look at O'Neill.

"And what does this have do with the Jaffa?" he asked.

Nothing really, that wasn't why there were here.

"Gothic leds a small group of people, but they have a lot of technology and resources, he wants to use them to aid the Jaffa. He knows you guys want your own nation, but you're still fight Goa'uld holdouts. Maybe he can help with that".

To Bra'tac this seemed promising.

"We would be honoured to meet him" the Jaffa master was now saying "I imagine there is much for us to discuss".

O'Neill could agree with that.

"In the meantime let's get you settled in the guest quarters" said the General.

(Line Break)

 **Area 51. Earth.**

Creating a new fighter, of any kind, was not an easy process, and while I was an engeerier of sorts, who had invented and improved upon a lot of existing technology, designing a new fighter for Earth was going to be a real challenge.

We had many limitations, we could only use technology that the humans of Earth had ready access to, and the finished product had to be cheaper than the current model of fighter that was being produced.

As it turned out I'd underestimated just how good the 302 actually was. It was much advanced that it first seemed, and with a skilled pilot between the controls, it could indeed outfly a Death Glider or a Wraith Dart. But that didn't change the real problem, which was that Earth needed a cheap space fighter that it could mass produce. After all why the ship might have quality on its side what Earth needed was quantity.

Lucky for me I had the aid of one Tali'Zorah, as a quarian she was used to building things on a budget, and she was a total genius when it came to using any kind of technology. She'd become a built spoilt due to replicators, access to advanced tools, and technology from different universes, but she was still a child of the Migrant Fleet, as such when she needed to, she could build on a budget.

Seven of Nine, who on board the ship investigating the science behind Earth's space fighters, might be smarter than Tali, but there wasn't much different and Tali was much better with the practical stuff. Also Star Trek Voyager was a TV show her so if I brought her down to work on this people here would why Jeri Ryan was at Area 51 while in costume.

"Okay so you want a fighter that surpasses this X-302 at a fraction of the cost to build, while only using technology we can find here on this planet" summarized the engineer.

That was more or less the case.

"Well it doesn't have to actual surpass the 302, just compare enough to be worth building" I said "But we do need something that can be easily built. Earth needs enough fighters to match those carried by the larger ships of the other powers, and that means they need hundreds of fighters, and they can't to be too expensive to build because most of the population don't even know there any aliens to fight".

At least recruiting pilots wouldn't be too much trouble. The good side to having the IOA around was that it meant the SGC could recruit from many air forces across the world, and get the best of the best. At some point I'd have to ensure that my own native country's air force the RAF had a squadron of my new fighters.

"Well we can keep the same frame as the 302" Tali'Zorah was currently saying "As for weapons how about a couple of small yield phase cannons?".

A phase cannon was a phase-modulated directed energy cannon weapon, a type of particle weapon which served as a successor to plasma cannons and as a precursor to the phaser of the 23rd and 24th centuries used in the Trek verse.

The prototypes of ship-mounted phase cannons were first introduced by Starfleet in the mid-22nd century, designed as the primary defense of NX-class starships and serving as a supplement for the lacking spatial torpedoes of the time. The first _NX_ -class vessel to test and actively use phase cannons in battle was _Enterprise_ NX-01.

"Nice idea" I said "But remember they'll need to be able to repair and reproduce all parts of the fighter by themselves".

I gave the matter some thought.

"My thinking is that twin laser cannons would be better, less powerful, but this fighter is meant to counter death gliders and darts, it doesn't need such powerful weapons, besides if they do they have naquadah enhanced missiles for shielded targets, perhaps we can prove upon them as well".

Earth had laser technology already so it was just a matter of making cannons with the right materials, and making sure the locals had a proper understanding of the technology.

"We can always give them the design for phase-cannons" suggested Tali "Perhaps once their technology has advanced a bit further they'll be able to produce their own".

That sounded like a good idea.

"What about shields?" Tali wondered.

I considered this.

"Energy shields would be too costly and all their enemies use energy weapons" I said "Well not their domestic enemies, but we're not designing a fighter to be used against people with projectile weapons so no kinetic barriers either".

Perhap we could look to Enterprise again and see how effective polarised hull plating could be as armour for the new fighter.

"This could take a while" said Tali.

Indeed it could.

(Line Break)

 **Stargate Command. Earth.**

It had been a relatively quiet day at the SGC, at least in the mind of a man called General Jack O'Neill. He sat at his desk and sipped at his coffee as he mentally went over what happened this day. There had been four incoming wormholes, all due to scheduled SGC parties coming and going, and that was about it.

Nothing had malfunctioned, nothing had exploded in any way, and SG-1 had not had been needed to foil some alien plot, it had been that rarest of things, a quiet day at the office. Which was a good thing, as he was currently facing the red tape mountain from hell. It wasn't that the forms were that massive. It wasn't that he didn't know how to fill them in. It wasn't that he couldn't fill them in. It was just that part of him kept rebelling against the idea of him being the guy in the office who did the paperwork.

He stared at the paperwork again and then smiled wryly. He could no doubt stuff the entire lot in a shredder and then talk his way out of it. Or maybe he'd hand it over to someone of lesser rank who wouldn't refuse the order.

Jack looked down at the desk and then leant back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. He longed to be up their, well not exactly up there, Area 51 was some distance away, but he had half a mind to have the Prometheus beam him out of the mountain and to the base.

There was a new fighter being produce and O'Neill longed to see when it was first sent out for a test flight. This was when he remembered that he was a general now and could order someone to beam him to Area 51. Which was a realisation that made him smile.

(Line Break)

 **Area 51. Earth.**

The helmet was a nice touch. It was so going to be decorating my quarters on my ship. I'd normally store such things somewhere more secure, alas I was rapidly filling my Cosmic Warehouse with junk despite my efforts to keep it all organised.

At some point I was either going to have add more shelving or find ways to further expand the space. Perhaps my reward for successfully filling this jump would aid me in that endeavor. That or I was finally going to have to go some sort of magical verse just so I could get containers that were bigger on the inside.

Harry Potter's world had those if I recalled correctly, but bigger on the inside stuff wasn't uncommon in fiction. For example Time Lords could do it, just with technology, however in the Potter verse you could just by bigger on the inside containers in Diagon Alley. But that was something to think about later.

As for the helmet, it was the standard helmet that the F-302 pilots wore, with the latest in polarising glass for the eye shield that dropped down, primitive, but I liked it. They'd even put my name on it.

I walked over to where General O'Neill was waiting, along with a nervous looking Air Force sergeant who was carrying a clipboard, and some other high ranking military people.

"General!" I called out as I approached, "Am I cleared for this test flight?"

The man next to O'Neill, who seemed to be doing some sort of paperwork, looked over at his superior office and nodded his head.

"According to Sergeant Siler you're good to go" I was told.

General Hammond, who had turned up for this test, held out his hand for me to shake. Which I took.

"Good luck, son" he said.

I headed over to the new fighter, she'd taken weeks to design and build even with all the technology I had my command, and while she didn't look much different that a 302, it was actually rather different, and more importantly cheaper to make.

She, for some reason everyone on the base thought my fighter was a girl, had twin laser cannons, computer aided targeting system, 4 wing-mounted long range air-to-air missiles that had been enhanced with naquadah and upgraded guidance systems, as well as inertial dampeners.

The original F-302 fighter-interceptor had four different sets of engines: air breathing jets, modified aerospikes for high altitude, a rocket booster, and a hyperspace window generator. The Goa'uld Death Gliders are not capable of entering hyperspace because the engine to create a hyperspace window would be much too large. But, because the F-302 used Naquadria to power the hyperdrive window generator, the F-302 has a more compact hyperdrive engine and thus became the first human-built spacecraft thought to be capable of interstellar travel. Because of the instability of the Naquadria, however, the hyperspace window can only be generated for a very brief moment, thus greatly limiting the F-302's interstellar travel capabilities.

This new fighter, which had no one had been able to agree on a name for, didn't use jet engines, rather I'd built, with considerable help, a rather crude drive pod, like that used by Puddle Jumper, which was a much fast craft than it might seem. This means of propulsion also saved a lot on fuel.

Once inside the fighter I pulled on his helmet, connected it to the radio, and then strapped the safety harness on. While most advanced civilizations didn't see seat belts or safety harnesses as being necessary I did.

A soft whine filled the air, gently rising in pitch as the new fighter lifted from the ground, its superior method of propulsion meant that the small craft took off smoothly and accelerated with ease. However because the propulsion pod had been built using Earth based materials and parts it was noisy when compared to a Puddle Jumper.

I was no fighter pilot. I'd flown many things, air cars, shuttles, tanks, and even a few spaced ships, but this was something else, I could feel the sheer power of the engines as I took off into the sky. It was quite the rush.

"Okay" I said to whoever was listening to my radio frequency "I'm going to take his baby to max speed and show you all what she can do".

(Line Break)

 **Stargate Command. Earth.**

Jack ambled down the corridor as he enjoyed spending time out of the office, and while he would deny it, he was in deep thought. He had a lot to think about. For one thing he wanted a go on the fighter prototype before the geeks got a chance to get their hands on it and to try to take it apart. Plus the guys from whatever firm was chosen to manufacture them would also get their claws into them.

He turned a corner and then slowed to a halt in front of the door to Carter's lab. Wonder of wonders, it was open and the sign warning people from entering had gone. Which meant whatever experiment she'd been up to was over, and he didn't have to worry about being exposed to some weird type of radiation.

"Knock knock," he said as walked in.

Carter was tapping away on her computer, and she looked happy.

"Hell? Carter? What's up?" Jack asked.

She looked up with a start.

"Oh. Good morning sir. I was just going the design for the phase cannons. I don't think we can use them on the 302s, but we might able to build them for the Daedalus class ships, and they should have the kind of power we need to penetrate energy shields.

O'Neill would have preferred phasers, but according to Teal'c an upcoming Star Trek series would have a ship that made use of weapons called phase cannons. Which was cool.

"That's it?" Jack asked "No aliens gaining a foothold, nothing wrong with gate, you're just going over design plans?".

Carter nodded.

"Yes, sir" she then said.

Jack had to sigh, he was sure things had been a lot more interesting around here when Hammond was in charge.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Earth Orbit.**

"I spend way too much time in meetings" I complained as I walked onto the bridge of my ship and sat in my special chair "I need to blow something up".

Miranda, who'd been keeping an eye on things for me while I was otherwise occupied, turned to face away from her station, and smiled at me.

"Did your meeting with those Jaffa people go well?" she asked.

Indeed it had. The Jaffa didn't want for much, but they had agreed to sell me examples of Goa'uld tech in exchange for supplies and weapons. Earth was generous with both, but unlike me the Tauri didn't have a Matter Furnace and replicators.

Because of them I could easily supply the Jaffa with metric tons of food, medical supplies, guns, naquadah, and pretty much anything else they wanted, and in exchange they'd get me Goa'uld tech such as staff weapons, zats, communication devices, and those hand held weapons some Goa'uld used to blast people with. Any rarer bits of technology I'd also trade for.

"The Jaffa were fine" I replied "Its the US government that's giving me headaches. They have some technology I want, but apparently making them a nice new fighter isn't enough, they want more tech. But it's not like they even use the stuff they have now".

One of the things that interested me were small devices some aliens had used to disguise themselves as members of the SGC during a foothold situation. I wanted some in case my group ever needed to disguise themselves, but the IOA wouldn't let me have them because of security concerns. At least not without handing over technology I didn't want to share, or more naquah than I was willing to part with. Sure the Matter Furnace could make the stuff, but to supply Earth's needs I'd need to spend many long, boring hours feeding the furnace. Frankly I had better things to do.

"They even melted down that Quantum Mirror I told you all about" I complained.

The Quantum Mirror was a device, which I was sure had been built by the Ancient known as Janus, that allowed a person, or even a group of people, access to alternate universes. The device had most likely been limited to alternate versions of the Stargate reality, but still it would have been fun to check them out. Plus in one of those realities Atlantis might unoccupied allowing me the chance to raid a version of that city-ship for its rarest tech.

At least that wasn't the only means of accessing alternate realities

"You're being called by the SGC again" Miranda told me.

I got up out of my chair, and headed for the transporter room while wondering what else they could want.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Earth Orbit.**

Doctor Jennifer Keller appeared in the transporter room of the Ancient battleship and soon as she could she got off the platform. Having her body taken apart, in a process that involved being teleported into orbit, had been not a pleasant experience for her.

"Welcome on board the..." Miranda Lawson started by saying "Oh bugger he still hasn't named the bloody ship".

This wasn't the welcome Keller had expected, and the former Cerberus Operative soon realised that she needed to get on with things.

"Sorry about that doctor" she said next "If you'll follow me I'll take you directly the sickbay. Its not been used much, and none of us have much interest in medicine, so feel free to make the space your own".

Two members of the robot crew took Keller's bags. When it came to personal effects she'd packed light, having been informed that her needs would be met while serving Captain Gothic, as most of the bags were full of specialised equipment as well as recording equipment for the discoveries she made.

"I've arranged quarters for you close to where your working" Miranda let Keller no as they began walking "And we don't have a mess hall, or a recreation area, if you don't want something to entertain you just ask the ship's computer".

The ship now had a verbal interface thanks to one of the improvements made by Seven of Nine and Tali'Zorah. This made accessing information much easier.

"Now we don't have much in the way of medical needs here" Miranda was now saying "So mostly you'll be doing research. We've gathered a lot of data on biology, but until now we've just been sending copies of what we've gathered to the Asgard. Your job while on board will be to go through the information and see if anything is useful".

Keller nodded in understanding.

"Is that all?" she asked.

Miranda led to ship's new Chief Medical Officer into sickbay.

"Pretty much" the biotic replied "Just get settled in, and I'll make sure you get access to all our information on biology. In exchange for your services you can share data with the SGC, and of course we'll pay you in naquadah, which your bosses can give the cash value for when you get home".

Miranda instructed the robots to begin setting up equipment.

"I suggest you start with our medical database and look up treatments for cancer" the genetically engineered woman said as she made to leave "Or maybe the cure for AIDS takes your fancy".

Jennifer Keller couldn't believe what she was hearing. She just stood there for a few moments while her brain attempted to accept this new reality.


	11. Chapter 11

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 11**

 **Solar Observation Outpost. Milky Way**

The Solar Observation Outpost was a facility used by Ba'al to monitor stars and solar flares for the purpose of time travel. The outpost was located on the planet Praxyon, and this was one of the worlds that the Ancients had once called home.

I'd not actually known this, and even with the aid of the stone the Asgard used to make memories more clear I hadn't been able to locate this observatory. However the Asgard had been able find by tracking the subspace signals from one of the many satellites that were sending information to this place.

Someone, possibly Baal himself, had placed hundreds of satellites in the orbits of stars for the purpose of relaying real-time information back to the computers here at this outpost. This information, along with a Stargate, could be used to send a person or forth back in time by knowing exactly when a solar flare of the right kind would interact with a wormhole.

Within the outpost, there was a Stargate, a set of Transportation rings, a computer core and a hologram projector. Also we discovered that the outpost was several kilometers underneath the ground and seemed to go down even further. It wasn't powered by a ZPM sadly, but rather it drew energy from the planet's core.

It was pretty clear to me that this outpost was of Ancient origin, this facility was probably used to study solar eruptions or it possible that the creator was a rogue scientist such as Janus, who built this place in secret. He'd have to given the Ancient's leaders stance on time travel.

My guess was that Anubis had found out about this place while ascended and its use may have been part of his plans, and that Baal somehow found out about it later.

In the alternate timeline which Ba'al created, Qetesh murdered Ba'al and took over the outpost. When SG-1 tried to fix the timeline she sent several squads of Jaffa down to the outpost to stop them. SG-1 and the rebel Jaffa tried to hold Qetesh's Jaffa off while Samantha Carter tried to find a suitable flare to send them back to the right time.

She found a flare, but not before Daniel Jackson was killed by a staff weapon. Cameron Mitchell then escaped through the Stargate, just after Samantha Carter lost her life. Then Qetesh transported herself down to the outpost and found Teal'c still alive.

Foolishly Qetesh started to converse with Teal'c, trying to persuade him to become her First Prime, which is the highest rank a Jaffa can obtain, rather than go after Mitchell, and of course Teal'c rejected her offer before setting off a grenade, while informing her that he would die free. The resulting explosion took out the entire Solar Observation Outpost . However, when time reset, the outpost was left intact.

Not that this mattered really as the Asgard were in full agreement with the Ancients about the issue of time travel. Sure there was a chance that they could use it to save their entire race, but they could also makes things worse.

With this mind Thor was planning to blow this place up, but not until it been explored. Since the Asgard weren't physically very capable, the Supreme Commander had enlisted my aid in securing this outpost. Which made sense since it was one of the concerns I'd shared with the Asgard High Council while visiting their planet.

"Thor wants to blow this place up" I reminded Seven and Tali as they took a look around "So let's download any information we can get on the stars being monitored. They might even have maps here".

This was after all an observatory, and the Ancient computer could contain a lot more information than just solar flare activity.

"It is unfortunate that this outpost must be destroyed" commented Seven.

With that I agreed.

"We don't have the means to secure it, and since its Ancient that means Baal won't be able to build another" I said to her "So blowing it up is the best course of action".

Really the Ascended Ancients should have destroyed stuff like this long ago, but then they'd actually have to do something.

"Where are we going after this?" was Tali's question.

I had some ideas on that.

Heliopolis was the name given to the planet designated PB2-908, by the Tau'ri. It once served as a meeting place for the Alliance of Four Great Races before the alliance came to an end when the remaining Ancients moved on to a higher plane of existence.

The planet was rediscovered by the Tau'ri, but the meeting place was lost when it finally collapsed, and the Stargate was buried. I intended to swing by and check the place out in my ship. There might not be anything left, but it was worth a visit

There was another planet I'd like to visit, Dakara, which was originally inhabited by the Ancients; it was the first planet they landed on when they arrived in the Milky Way. On the planet, they built a superweapon/monument/terraformer, that once brought life back to this galaxy following the devastation of a great plague that had swept through this part of the universe.

After the disappearance of the Ancients, the planet apparently came under control of the Goa'uld. The System Lords were aware that a powerful weapon on Dakara existed, but were unable to make of it.

The planet served a sinister role at that time as Goa'uld used it to enslave the Jaffa. According to stories told by Jaffa, Dakara was the planet where their enslavement began, as it was the site of the first Prim'ta ritual, which involves shoving a larva Goa'uld into a Jaffa's pouch.

At the end of the reign of the Goa'uld, the planet lay deep within Ba'al's former territory, making any attempt to conquer the planet tactically unsound. Ba'al kept a number of Ha'taks in range of the world to guard it from such an incursion.

Now it was guarded by the forces of the Free Jaffa, who so far I was on friendly terms with, however it was unlikely that they'd let me poke around their most important planet so I'd have to skip that one.

"There are a few planets that I'd like to check out" I told the alien in human form "but there's no rush, and I want to head back to Atlantis for those upgrades".

We could always return to the Milky Way again later, but before we did leave we had some business in this galaxy to attend to.

(Line Break)

 **Camelot. Milky Way Galaxy.**

Camelot, also known as PX1-767, was a planet inhabited by a medieval level population who were once ruled by King Arthur. Many of the Arthurian legends here differed from the Tau'ri legends I soon learned: Arthur defeated Mordred in the Battle of Camlann, while Merlin was viewed as a malicious trickster.

This planet was where Merlin hid his research on the Sangraal, to prevent the Ancients and the Ori from finding it. He locked his research in a library that contained a holographic guardian, and spread rumors that the library was cursed (protected by a Black Knight).

In the show Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell and Doctor Daniel Jackson were able to defeat the guardian, which then revealed a great treasure that the two of them gave to the people of Camelot.

My group had done the same, just in a fraction of the time. Merlin's force field was brought down by Seven easily enough, and I kept the black knight busy long for Tali to remove the power source for the holographic emitter that created the knight, which was easy for Seven to find since she had a tricorder.

Getting the Ancient device to show us all the treasure, as well as Merlin's message was a bit more work, but again Seven proved her worth by hacking the control console.

What interested me was that the sword I'd pulled from the stone, which had been easy to remove when the black knight had appeared, didn't disappear along with the holographic guardian. It was a physical weapon, not a hologram, yet in the centuries since it was forged the metal had not at all tarnished, I suspected that it had been built virtually by Merlin using metal that wasn't a type of steel, rather than be forged, but that was something I'd look into later. For now I had to deal with Meurik, who was the leader of this village.

"This treasure is all yours" I told the man "Just give us time to study the books here".

It would take hours, even with robots controlled by Cortana doing all the work, but we should be able to scan the pages of each book and upload them on a prothean disc, which would make the information much easier to sort through.

"You do not wish to claim any of this for yourself?" wondered Meurik "After all it was you who defeated Merlin's champion, and ended the curse upon this place".

Actually I hadn't done either of those things, my companions had done all the real work. I'd just battled a hologram, which had been easy thanks to my superior reflexes and speed, along with body armour that absorbed harmful energy.

"No we have plenty of treasure already" I told the man "Knowledge is our prise. We seek the Sangraal".

As I'd expected it wasn't here, but we did learn what we needed to uncover the next piece of the puzzle. And we might not even need to go that far as the Ancient laptop at found at Glastonbury Tor contained a lot of information. Combined with that was in this library, we might not even need Merlin, only time would tell.

(Line Break)

 **Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.**

While the Asgard scientist Kvasir was somewhat aloof and even pompous at times, it wasn't his attitude that annoyed me, but rather what the had to say.

"Say that again" I instructed.

Kvasir was one of the Asgard who currently lived on Atlantis as part of his race's effort to help the Ancients rebuild what they could. He was also in charge of the upgrades being installed on to my ship. The Asgard hadn't as of yet shared with me any weapon or shield upgrades, they had been more generous when it came to installing the best hyperdrive, sensors, and communications that they could supply.

While the Asgard engineers worked on these improvements I was taking some time to enjoy the city-ship. I'd been here before, but I'd not taken the time to simply admire Atlantis, and while the remaining Ancients were set against humans messing with their tech they had no issue with me taking in the sights and touring the more public areas.

During my sight seeing Kvasir had asked to speak with me, and while the news he shared wasn't welcome it was important.

"The Ancients now living in Atlantis have become divided on the issue of their future" the small alien explained to me "Some favour utterly destroying the Wraith and rebuilding their civilization was best they can in this galaxy, while others wish to join the rest of their kind in a higher plane of existence".

Hearing this upset me as it sounded as if the Ancients wanted to abandon this galaxy, and the leave the human civilizations here to thrive as best they could. Without the Stargate network, they couldn't it turn back on with giving the Wraith the chance to start culling again, the different human worlds would be cut off from each other until the more advanced humans built FTL drives. That could be a good or a bad thing, I simply didn't know.

"There is a division, with the two parties being led by the captains of the two remaining Aurora-class warships" Kvasir was now telling me "The captain of the Aurora believes that the remaining Ancients have a right to chose how to live out the remainder of their lives. The captain of the Tria is of the opinion that they must destroy the Wraith and restore their dominion over this galaxy".

I had been hoping that the Ancients would go back to ruling this galaxy as the humans here did need some help rebuilding what had been lost during all those Wraith cullings. And as galactic rulers went the Ancients would be good ones.

"There's barely enough of them as it" I said "If half of them go off somewhere to try to Ascend the rest won't even be able to run this city".

Plus they kind of needed everyone they had to make babies so there would be future generations of Ancients, although with their limited genepool I could see that being an issue. Not that this was my problem.

"I have made the Asgard High Council aware of what is happening here" Kvasir let me know "Our ability to aid the people of other galaxies is limited at this time. Our energy and resources must be spent trying to solve our own problems".

No one could blame for looking after themselves. The Asgard had been through so much what with their war with the Replicators, and their genetic issues.

"Should the remaining Ancients become divided it might be wise to have the Tau'ri take ownership of this city once again" Kvasir mused "They have the potential and drive to aid the people of this galaxy in ways similar to how the Ancients once did".

That would not be a good idea. Sure things may have changed enough that the Atlantis expedition wouldn't unleash Michael upon this galaxy or mess with the Asurans, but that didn't mean they wouldn't screw up in other ways. Besides they had the Milky Way to worry about, with the downfall of the Goa'uld and the raising of groups such as the Lucian Alliance, and the founding of the Free Jaffa nation, the Tauri really ought to focus their efforts on the people of their own galaxy.

"What other option is there?" the alien the asked.

This required some thought.

"I've considered trying to unify the people of this galaxy" I mentioned to the Asgard "If the Wraith were destroyed and the Stargates reopened, it would be possible for the humans of this galaxy to start working together, the problem is building a... well let's call the Confederation of Worlds, is that I'm not going to be here a decade from now. Would any organization I built last long without me?".

Again the alien blinked at me.

"The Asgard High Council had considered this issue within our own galaxy" he (the little grey person seemed male to me for some reason) said "Perhaps you could simply lay the foundations of a more civilized galaxy, and then let others take over when the time was right".

It actually wouldn't be that hard, at least not once the Wraith were out of the way, I could just move from world to world inviting people to join my galactic civilization, and with the gates this worlds would have little trouble trading with each other. We could use the city-ship Seven had spent so much time studying as a capital city once it was fixed up. Atlantis would be better, but should the Ancients abandon the city, again, I was sure the Tauri would try to reclaim and fight for it.

The Tauri would be a concern in the long run, but in the short term it was the Wraith I'd have to deal with. To restore the gate network we'd have to switch off the device that was currently preventing the Wraith ships from going faster than light. Which means we'd have to hunt them all down.

That wasn't impossible, with the new and improved long range sensors, and access to the scanners of a couple of city-ships hunting down most of the Hives would be more time consuming than dangerous. However even if I could destroy every ship, the smaller craft were harder to find on sensors, there would still be Wraith inside their groundside bases and dormant Hives, those that hand landed, wouldn't show up on the sensors because they didn't give off much in the way of energy.

Again this would just delay things as sooner or later I would find the remaining Wraith even if I had to map all of this galaxy with probes, and any Wraith who did go into hiding well enough to remain hidden wouldn't awake for more than a century, of that I felt certain.

The hard part would be committing genocide as while I'd helped wipe out the Collectors back in the Mass Effect universe, the Wraith weren't soulless minions of the Reapers, they were in a sense a sort of people. But this wasn't the time or the place for that sort of moralising.

"So would the Asgard High Council support me if I start unifying human worlds in this galaxy and destroyed the Wraith?" I asked.

All I got in reply to that was very non-committal look. Now I couldn't be sure if the Asgard leaders were willing to back me or if this one Asgard had just been speculating on what could be done for the future of this galaxy. Not that it really mattered, I'd already gotten involved so my options were either keep getting involved or to run away and ignore the problems plaguing this galaxy.

(Line Break)

 **Cosmic Warehouse. Outside of Reality.**

Since my group had spent our time in the Stargate universe going around plundering, stealing, or otherwise acquiring lots of technology I was rapidly filling up my warehouse, so in order to ensure that we ample room in the future Tali was removing the small holosuite, and Seven of Nine had come up with a way of optimising the available space that involved carefully placing each container (which all contained something of value) in a certain place on the shelves.

In order to free up some space, less important items, basically stuff we could build more of if needs be, was being transferred to my ship to be used a decorations, if they were lost it wouldn't be big deal, and there was plenty of room for more stuff, such as souvenirs.

Once this was done we should have enough room for technology that we hadn't been given the chance to study, as well as things that we couldn't replace. Although thanks to Seven's organisation we wouldn't have to get rid of much now that the placement of every object had been optimised.

Also we needed room for more Prothean data discs and borg data modules, which were using to back all the data we were gathering. That way should anything happen to my warship we shouldn't lose all the priceless knowledge we'd gathered over so many years.

"Have you decided on a course of action?" asked Seven as Cameron and I moved some boxes around so they fit within the new layout for the warehouse "Concerning the fact of this galaxy".

That was not an easy question to answer.

"No" I replied "deciding the fate of millions of people is not something you can just figure out in a few hours".

I might never actually make a choice.

"Understandable" said Seven of Nine "the issue of what to do with the Wraith is a difficult one".

It boiled down to keeping the gate network off forever and having no unity between humans in this galaxy, or turning it back on, which could only be done safely if the Wraith were gone. Now while it was possible that some Wraith might survive by going back into hibernation for a century or so, that wasn't good for the humans of Pegasus as it just meant future generations would be culled rather than the people living now.

Hunting down every last Wraith might be possible, but then I would have wiped out an entire species, and was that justified?

After all as the Doctor once said: Hunger looks very much like evil from the other end of the cutlery. The Wraith had to feed in order to survive, so one argue that wiping them out was just self defence for the whole human race, but the Wraith weren't really monsters, they were an intelligent race.

"Have you considered imprisoning a number of Wraith in stasis until a more permanent solution can be devised, such as gene therapy?" enquired Seven.

This I had considered, and I'd dismissed it.

"Some idiot, a Tauri team most likely, would stumble across the prison and wake them up" I told Seven "Or they'd be forgotten about and would awaken thousands of years from now, and they'd ramage across this galaxy".

I'd even considered asking the Asgard for a time dilation device so that I could imprison captured Wraith on a world with slowed down time, with the intention of giving the people of this galaxy thousands of years to figure out a solution for the Wraith. But then I'd have to figure out how to get all the Wraith onto one planet.

Maybe Beckett's idea of turning them into humans wasn't such a bad one, at least then they could have some sort of lives when they wouldn't be a threat to anyone. The problem with that was the treatment did not work, at least not in the long term.

"I need to give this more thought" I said to the former drone "For now there are other things we can do to benefit the galaxy without hurting anyone".

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"Doctor Keller" I said by way of greeting as the Tauri woman walked onto the bridge "I don't think you've been here before".

She was clearly impressed by the sight before her, the bridge of this ship was impressive, so I gave her a few moments to check things out.

"Where are we?" she asked when she saw the hologram of the planet we were currently orbiting as well as the space around it "Is that a debris field?".

This was good timing by her. I'd meant to go down to sickbay and talk with the good doctor about a long term solution for the Wraith issue, but that could wait a few moments.

"During the war with the Wraith, the Lantean Council, the leaders of Atlantis, ordered the scientists working on a Project Arcturus to build an outpost and conduct research on this planet" I told Keller "Eventually, a Wraith fleet arrived, including a Hive ship, intending to cull the planet, the remains of which you can see outside".

And which we were taking detailed scans.

"The Lanteans destroyed the Wraith fleet using their experimental power source and one of their most powerful weapons" I went on to say "Unfortunately, Project Arcturus had not been perfected: it began to overload and the weapon ended up destroying not only the orbiting Wraith ships, but leveling every building within range on the planet's surface, as well as a lot of the local wildlife. The Lanteans eventually managed to shut down both the weapon and the power source, but they were all killed by hard radiation while doing so".

10,000 years later, Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay, Chief Science Officer attempted to perfect Project Arcturus. Unfortunately, the power core overloaded, forcing McKay and Sheppard to flee with the resulting explosion destroying Doranda and 5/6ths of the surrounding solar system. Or at least they would have.

"A team of Asgard and Ancients are dismantling the power source and the weapon" I told the doctor "it's too dangerous to leave just lying around. The planet is no longer inhabited, and while its ecosystem was damaged the planet is finally starting to recover, one day this world could be a home to millions. I'd rather not have some people move in and then start messing around with something so dangerous".

The world could support life, but the winters on this planet were harsh, and a good chunk of it had been flattened or irritated thousands of years ago, which wasn't a long time for a planet.

"Anyway I'm glad you're here, Doctor Keller" I admitted.

Now she seemed both worried and curious.

"You are?" she questioned.

I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Yes" I confirmed "I've been trying to come with a solution to the Wraith problem. As things stand peaceful co-existence is impossible as the Wraith have to feed on people. Now I know Doctor Beckett started work on something that would turn the Wraith into humans. I'd like you to continue you with that research".

She seemed shocked, but before she could protest I spoke again.

"I'm not expecting any results overnight" I said "And it might not work, but I would like some solution to the Wraith problem that doesn't involve genocide. I'll get you any resources you need, and hopefully I can recruit some brilliant minds to help you".

While all the Asgard with knowledge of biology were busy trying undo the damage done to their race, and the Ancients didn't have people to spare, there were other advanced races out there. Not just clever humans, but also people like the Tok'ra, they might be able to help. And the both the Asgard and the Ancients might be able to spare some people in the future.

"That could take years" Keller prosted "If it's even possible".

I wasn't too worried about that.

"Sometime in the next decade would be nice" I said "And I know that the Wraith do have a digestive system, if you can't make them human, maybe we can them on solid foods instead of life force".

Keller gave it some thought.

"I'd need to speak to some people on Earth" she let me know "And I'll need Doctor Beckett's research".

That was no problem.

"The Asgard have finished installing their long range communications technology" I informed the young woman "We should be able to set up a receiver at the SGC that will let you talk to people back home".

That would take time, as Seven and Tali already had a lot to do. But I did need a long term solution to the Wraith.


	12. Chapter 12

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 12**

 **Aurora-class Warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

I had to admit that the Asgard knew what they were doing, a small team had come on board, and had performed several upgrades to what was already a very advanced technology. We now had superior long range communications, better sensors, and they'd even improved the hyperdrive.

Right now I was using a combination of holographic technology and the improved sensors to map out parts of this small galaxy. While we didn't get a great level of detail without entering the solar system we were scanning it was still worth scanning.

At a distance of light years we only got enough information to find out if it was worth a closer look, by detecting stuff like high energy readings, subspace broadcasts, and ships entering as well as exiting hyperspace.

However we were able to see how solar systems were set out, and view them using the holographic displays. Which was very cool, and this way we could see some of the more interesting stellar phenomena, such as black holes, nebula, and pulsars, all from a safe distance.

I was doing this from the control chair, not the seat on the bridge, so I was using the proper control chair, like the one in Atlantis. From this seat I could control the whole ship, fly us through hyperspace, fire the weapons, monitor life signs, and even mess about with the doors. Not that I did, as while it was tempting, that would be childish.

Actually what really prevented me from messing about was Seven of Nine, she had just entered the chair room, she had a worried look on her face and a data padd in her hand.

"The Wraith have been working on this for some time" Seven informed me she handed over the padd "They be close to completing a new hyperdrive engine".

This information must have been sent out to all Wraith ships via some secure means. Meaning that we hadn't captured that crusier we wouldn't have even known about it. At least not until the cullings started again and my Judgment Day perk went off.

"Well no worries" I said to Seven "We just need to figure out what base they are using, jump to that world and bomb the outpost from orbit".

Seven considered this.

"I should be able to track down the source of this transmission" she assured me.

This made me smile.

"Good" I said "Now once you have the coordinates, send them to me. We can be there in a few hours thanks to our new hyperdrive".

Seven nodded, turned around and left. Which gave me the chance to see how fine her ass looked in the blue coloured jumpsuit she was wearing today.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"Scan the surface of the planet" I ordered a few moments after we left hyperspace.

As I'd expected no Wraith ships guarded the planet, which made sense as while the work going on at the outpost here was important, until it was finished no Wraith ship could travel faster than light, meaning no ship could be sent here to protect the outpost.

The Wraith couldn't even use this world's space gate to send Darts as the gate network was still offline. Also by the looks of things the outpost didn't have darts of its own as none tried to stop us assaulting the Wraith base.

"I've found the Wraith outpost" Seven of Nine reported from her science station.

Turning in my chair I moved to face Cameron, who was manning, or roboting in this case, the weapon's station.

"We won't bother with drones" I told her "Use the pulse cannons, and just level the entire area. Leave nothing left".

To my surprise Seven of Nine hadn't suggested going down there in order to take the data for our own needs. After all she had her own Wraith ship which was also unable to travel faster than light, despite the alterations she'd made. Then again she understood as well as I did how dangerous such information was to the people of this galaxy.

I brought up another hologram, this one showing the Wraith research outpost and the surrounding area, which was soon being blasted by pulse fire. Cameron followed my orders and did her best to turn the entire area to a level glassy surface. By the time she was done there was no chance of any information or research material being left behind.

"Well that was easily dealt with" Miranda Lawson commented.

When you the right tools, and half a brain to use them with, even big problems could be easily handled.

(Line Break)

 **Planet. Milky Way Galaxy.**

My companions and I walked into the village, for once it was all of us going on a mission, since this planet couldn't be reached by ship, we'd arrived here via the Stargate, and that meant there had been no sense in leaving anyone behind.

Well aside from Jennifer Keller, she wasn't a proper companion, as such I didn't trust her with stuff like this, for now her loyalty was with the Tauri, not with me. Not that I needed to as she like ATA gene and as couldn't do anything with my ship once I had locked it down and the robots would stop her from trying to damage it. Not that she would.

Currently, Seven, Miranda, Cameron and I were standing around, as the villagers stared curiously at us. We must look very strange them with our modified Vanir body armour, energy weapons, which included Traveller Particle Mangums as sidearms, and backpacks full of supplies.

I took off my helmet, and let the locals see that I was as human as they were, this made the locals relax somewhat, but not totally. Still they didn't seem hostile, it was more than they seemed uncertain, and nervous.

"We have come here in search of the Sangraal; can you assist us?" I asked.

For a moment, the villagers simply exchanged glances with each other, until one of them finally broke the silence.

"It has been many generations since anyone has come in search of the Sangraal," the villager said "If you truly seek the Sangraal, you must consult with the Parchment of Virtues in the village library; it will prepare you for the journey to come".

So far so good. The library was pointed out and we started walking in that direction.

"Thank you," I replied.

"But I should warn you," the villager suddenly added "no one has ever returned from the Quest alive; if you value your lives, you would do well to reconsider your course of action".

No one spoke further, we just walked to the library, and the old wooden door led is into a room that was filled with rolls of parchment and odd bits of paper that scattered all over the shelves, as well as some piles of books on a table and some benches.

"Anyone home!" I called out.

An old man with a neat, short white beard, and robes that wouldn't have looked out of place on a teacher at Hogwarts, heard my call. I clearly remembered that in the show he turns out to be Adria. Given his presence here it was safe to assume that in the main timeline Adria must have killed the real librarian and taken his place. Which meant his life was one I'd saved by changing the course of events.

"I am Osric, keeper of the village archives" the man said by way of greeting.

"Hello," I replied "We're looking for something called the Parchment of Virtues".

Thanks to the Asgard stone I could clearly remember everything that happened in the show, however it was possible that some of the details in this reality could be different. It was unlikely, yet I still felt it wise to follow the plot as closely as possible. Still we'd come prepared as possible.

"So another band of stalwart heroes come to tempt fate in the hopes of claiming the legendary prize" said Osric "If your are looking for the Sangraal then I can tell you that it is located in a cave beyond the outlying forest and that the journey there is fraught with peril".

I was suddenly getting a D&D vibe, where was my level 12 Paladin when I needed him?

"Ages ago," Osric continued say, as he climbed slowly up a ladder to remove a long wooden box from a shelf" "Morgan Le Fay enchanted the area with a terrible curse, and since then it has claimed countless lives"

The old man opened the box, and then placed the parchment it contained, a small piece of paper rolled around two long, thin pieces of wood, on the table before us. Thanks to one of my many perks I was able to tell that the paracment was written in Ancient and I could also read it.

"This parchment was purportedly left behind by Morgan herself, as a guide for knights of noble spirit, since it is said that only the most virtuous will succeed in claiming the Sangraal".

Well this meant I wasn't qualified for the quest, however since Ba'al of all people was able to make it to Merlin I wasn't worried.

"'Only those of virtue true may win the prize concealed beyond the reach of the flawed and tainted," I read odd off the parchment "The Sangraal shall instead belong to he who speaks the guardian's name".

Lucky for us I knew the name.

"They say that the Sangraal is protected by the most powerful of mythical beasts," Osric soon told us "A dragon"

Despite my having already given a briefing on this mission, Seven of Nine was dismissive of the idea of a dragon.

"The dragon is a mythological creature" said the Borg drone "They do not exist".

Well given that many of the myths and legends in this galaxy had a bases in truth, it was actual possible that something that could be called a dragon did exist somewhere in this galaxy. In this case however we would be facing a hologram similar to the holographic guardians employed by Merlin.

"With luck you may have the opportunity to prove the truth for yourselves" was the old man's replay.

"'Prudence, wisdom, charity, kindness, and faith'," I said, while once again reading from the parchment "'Let these be your guide on this perilous quest'".

Again I knew all of this, but it was good to get confirmation.

"Is there anything else?" Miranda asked

"No," Osric replied, as he rolled the parchment back up and returned it to the box. "All Morgan left behind was this parchment... and the map".

That we might need.

"Could we take a look at that map?" I asked.

The man looked us all over for a few moments.

"You may study it, if you so wish," he said "However, I would ask that you not remove it from this building, the map itself must remain with me".

That was fine. I would just scan it with my omni-tool and use its fabricator to produce a much more modern looking copy.

(Line Break)

The majority of the walk was fairly straightforward for a time, with the group and I exchanging short stories about things we gotten up that not everyone else knew about. Then we encountered the first of Morgan La Fay's tests after a long walk through a field filled with high grass brought us to the outskirts of a forest,

Spread out in front of us, all facing the direction that the team were currently travelling in, were a scattered group of people dressed in clothing similar to the villagers. At first glance all of the people before us simply appeared to be standing completely still, but upon closer inspection it became clear that they simply weren't moving. Well actually that wasn't the case, they were moving, just so slowly that it seemed as if they were frozen.

"This must be one of the tests you told us about" said Tali.

Seven was already scanning.

"I'm picking up varying anomalous readings; stronger here... weaker here" the former borg drone said "I should be able to map us a safe route if given time to study this test".

Well we were in no rush.

"So Morgan Le Fay really did set up a time distortion field around this place we are going to" Tali was now saying to me "You know I had hard time believing it when you told me about this. The power requirements must be... well I can't even guess".

There could be a ZPM somewhere in the mountain we were heading to. If so I might remove it, as it wasn't as if anyone was going to have to find Merlin once I did. Of course it was mostly likely shielded, and since I couldn't some here by ship it might be possible for me to find it.

"I have found a way through" reported Seven "if you would all follow my lead"

We formed a conga line, only it lacked music and kicking, which for some reason made the whole thing seem more silly rather than less. On the plus side we were prepare for the temporal field to mess with our equipment so no chance of having to rely on old fashioned methods to get us through this maze.

"If you stray off the path, you could end up trapped in the distortion field" Seven warned.

For the first few steps it was relatively straightforward, we travelled a few metres before we needed to turn to the left, and there were more course corrections after that. Which left me with the feeling that this could take a while.

(Line Break)

"Well, we've already passed one test; there's not much point in stopping now" I said

Sitting in the middle of a small clearing in the woods was a simple wooden chest. I wasn't sure if we could bypass this test, and it seemed wise to do as SG1 had. So we purposely let ourselves get stuck in the force field trap.

"Remember that the Parchment of Virtues told us that we've have to rely on five things in order to reach the Sangraal; prudence, wisdom, charity, kindness, and faith. Charity is of the virtues mentioned in the parchment, so as planned we all put something in the box".

In short order we gave up an item we didn't need, but that did belong to us. We could have put rocks, and perhaps it would have worked, I just so no reason not to do what SG1 did since I knew that method would work. And it did, a moment after I closed the small chest the force field came down, then we were once more on our way.

As we walked I checked the map once again.

"According to this, the Sangraal itself is located in a cave beneath a lone mountain; if we focus on the mountain as our destination, we should be able to avoid any further traps".

Which was important as SG1 hadn't encountered any further traps in the show, so if there were more I would have trouble getting us out of them.

(Line Break)

After another couple of hours of walking towards the cone-shaped, volcano-like mountain we finally arrived at the what had to be the entrance; a small rocky corridor surrounded by foliage and moss.

"So the Sangraal's in there?" Miranda asked "Are you sure?".

Even for us seeking out the holy grail, which was a weapon we needed in case this galaxy was ever invaded by higher powers, did seem a bit silly.

"Yes" I told the former Cerberus operative "We just have to get through the cave, and then deal with a dragon".

Seven was scanning again.

"According to my scans, there is no sign of any kind of temporal distortions" she reported "However I am picking up a few odd anomalies. I advise caution".

We entered and soon came across a decently sized chamber with Ancient writing on the wall. Also there were two paths leading in two directions on either side of the writing.

"Choose the way that is just and true," I read from the sign before us.

The Parchment of Virtues might have stated that kindness was one of the virtues that those who sought the Sangraal would need to possess, but it wasn't out of the question that this was also intended to test their wisdom by giving us an obvious trap to avoid. But I stopped worrying about that when we rounded the corner and saw an iron portcullis in front of us, the small boy, who must be a holographic projection, was sitting on the floor behind the door while crying. As in the show the barrier vanished once we all moved to free the child.

We moved on once more, and soon enough the new the tunnel came to a dead end, and we found another panel with Ancient writing on it.

"It's a riddle," I said as I studied the writing in front of us. "I'm struck and cut, shaped and cooled, then bound by rings to release what's stored".

The cave around us suddenly began to shake

"Key!" I yelled.

That didn't work. I figured the answer must have to be in Ancient like how Doctor Jackson had answered.

"Clavia!" I yelled at the panel, having gotten a translation from my omni-tool.

The way forward was cleared and as we approached another panel with Ancient writing on it the rumbling started yet again.

"I shake the earth with booming thunder, fell forests whole and homes complete" I read out "I influence ships, topple kings, sweep down swift yet remain unseen!"

All the fuss around us was forcing me to shout.

"Vantio!" I then said

We hurried up a flight of stairs only to discover another panel as the rumbling continued.

"Contagia!"

The final panel vanished as the rumbling around us ceased at last, and once again we carried on with the quest. Before long we came across a wall of fire, which we simply walked through as it was the type of thing the environmental shields created by our life support belts were meant to deal with.

(Line Break)

 **Planet. Milky Way Galaxy.**

Defeating the dragon was simple enough as I knew the guardian's name, and before long I reached for the red gem, which of course was just a hologram, when I did try to grab it we were transported to another planet.

We soon found the stasis chamber, but there were no controls for it, and didn't respond to my mental command like some Ancient technology did. I assumed therefore that it would activate in a few moments. Mostly likely Morgan La Fey had programmed the device to defrost Merlin a short time after someone arrived in this chamber.

"'Here lies Myrrdin, Archmage of the Round'," I said, while leaning over to read the writing.

Since we had a few moments we all started looking around.

"I don't remember you mentioning what this is during the briefing" Miranda said.

"Stay away from that" I warned "Its a repository of knowledge".

Repositories of knowledge were put simply, digital libraries that download the entire knowledge bank of the Ancients into the brain of a person; however the knowledge is far too vast for the Human brain to comprehend at its current evolutionary level, so much so that the mind of the person exposed to the data within will slowly degrade after being exposed, until the brain could no longer function.

"Even with my perks, body mods, and genetic engineering I wouldn't be able to cope with all the knowledge" I told the group "I had a rough time dealing with the Prothean Cipher and that was just the knowledge of the Protheans who lived on Feros".

While receiving the Cipher was somewhat similar to gaining in the knowledge of the Ancients, there was a massive difference in scale. Sure I might last a bit longer than O'Neill, but it would kill me all the same. Of course the Asgard could remove the knowledge, however since I still had the Cipher in my head I couldn't be sure downloading more information wouldn't kill me right away.

Before anyone could say anything else, a sound started coming from the stasis chamber as the 'ice' receded away from the occupant, the old man inside began to fall forward. It was only thanks to my superior speed and reflexes that I was able to grab the guy before he hit the cold floor.

Merlin weakly opened his mouth as though he was about to say something, only then he leant back and closed his eyes, his body slumping as I held him. With help from the others we cleared away some place on a stone slab and tried to make the old man as comfortable as we could using what we could find to serve as a pillow and blankets.

"We've woken him up sooner than in the TV show" I said to the group "But given how long he's been in stasis that won't matter much. We need to get off this planet so that we can met with Thor who hopefully can keep him alive long enough for him to give us a Sangraal and straighten things out in Atlantis.

To that end I headed outside to check on the gate, and the group followed me.

"As you predicted the obelisk near the Sangraal hologram teleported us through the Stargate after activating it by remote control" stated Seven of Nine.

While everything going on as did in the show did make things easier, it also made it more boring, but this was so important that I really didn't mind.

"Tali, Seven, get to work on the gate" I ordered "Miranda, Cameron, stay out here and keep an eye on things. I don't think we'll be attacked, but better safe than sorry".

After that I headed back inside, and found Merlin coming around.

"Where... where am I?" the elderly Ancient wish to know "Who are you, what do you want?".

Lucky for him these were questions that I could answer.

"You're in cave, on a planet that is somewhere in the Milky Way galaxy" I told Merlin "My name is Gothic, my companions and I came here looking for the Sangraal. You were placed here in stasis by Morgan La Fay".

I figured it might take a few moments before the Ancient figured out what was going even with my help. He might be an advanced human, but no one woke up after a thousand year nap without needing their cobwebs cleared.

"Morgan?" Merlin muttered, sounding uncertain.

"You knew her as Ganos Lal" I told him.

"Ganos Lal..." Merlin repeated

He then stood up.

"Now that is a name I haven't heard for a very long time..."

I was sure the bloke was deep in memory at this point, alas we had no time for such things. Merlin was dying, and only the Asgard could save him, which meant we had to get him out of here, and that would go much more quickly if I could get the old man to help us figure out what was up with the gate.

"Look, sorry to rush you" I said to Merlin "But you need to know that a thousand years have passed since Morgan La Fay placed you in stasis, and what's left of your people in this plane of existence are badly in need of proper leadership".

I got the impression that he wasn't really hearing me.

"It's been so long... so hard to think... so tired..."

"I can help with that," I said.

He didn't even react when I scanned with omni-tool.

"Basically he's physically exhausted" Cortana explained to me once the scan was done "Give him a mild stimulant, and a health shot".

Health shots were my groups name for hyposprays that were filled with the things the human body needed to help deal with injuries and other problems. It contained a mixture of all the things the body needed, such as vitamins, as well as trace amounts of important minerals, and it could injected straight into a person's bloodstream to more quickly aid them.

"That should help keep you going until we reach our allies" I told the Ancient as I gave him the aid Cortana had suggested.

He was already looking more aware.

"Your technology" he said "I did not think humans had developed such things".

Well for the most part they hadn't. The Tollan might have, not that having such tech had meant when Anubis turned up. I wondered if there was anything left of that world. When I had the time I should go check it out. I still meant to go check out that four races meeting place as well. Thankfully I had plenty of time.

"I'm from a different universe" I explained "I've been moving from reality to reality for years now collecting technology and knowledge. So I'm more advanced than the rest than the humans on this galaxy, at least as far as I know".

Amazingly he didn't question that.

"Now we just need my companions to finish working on the gate" I told Merlin.

He was now standing up and walking around.

"Have you become aware of the Ori?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Yes" I then said "But not many are aware of them, and they aren't aware of us. However they could find out about us in the future, so I felt it best to prepare".

Merlin visibly relaxed.

"Then there is no urgency" he said.

Well actually there was.

"My companions I recovered some of your people who weren't able to return to Earth when you left Atlantis" I told the old man "There's a few hundred of your people there, and they don't know what to do about their future. So aside from making a new Sangraal we need to provide some leadership".

Merlin chuckled.

"Then I come full circle" he said "I began on Atlantis, and there I must finish my life's work".

That was the plan. Merlin couldn't led the remaining Anicents on this plane of existence for very long, but perhaps he could command them long enough that the Wraith could be dealt with, and some sort of course of action for them in the long term could be decided. Then I wouldn't have to do it.

"Gothic, we're ready to go!" I heard Tali call out.

I turned to Merlin.

"If you'll come with me, sir I'll take you to met some allies of mine" I said.

He didn't protest, instead he followed me without saying a word.


	13. Chapter 13

**Reviews**

 **Joe Lawyer**

Not right now, but that could change in the future. Also the Anicent database is vast so even Cortana might not be able to handle it. Remember it's not just data, but also the understanding of the secrets of the universe. I don't how the Asgard can simply upload that from someone's head.

Besides once he has the DNA resequer he can just make himself advanced enough to handle that much information.

When it comes to the Wraith even if it is the choice of the people of that galaxy, its still Gothic who would have to do the killing if the Ancients don't. The Wraith have done nothing to Gothic, and are no threat to him.

I did think about an EMH program, but I forgot to add it to the story. Seems a bit late now, and he has a real doctor anyway.

He will acquire more Asgard and Ancient technology in time.

 **Selias**

A city-ship wouldn't have fitted in the space dock.

 **Bluesnowman**

Thanks for the information, but I'll use the warehouse and addons that I am used to.

 **Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 13**

 **Aurora-class Warship. Milky Way Galaxy.**

This was becoming a regular habit, me walking into one of Seven's lab in order to find out what she was working on, and what breakthroughs she'd made. This was the lab she used when working on armour, which was separate from, but close to the lab she used when studying weapons.

Seven had so many labs, not just because she wanted them, but also because she had so much to study. Lucky for her our home was a 3 km long ship which was powered by the greatest artificial energy source known to mankind.

Some of her current projects included, time dilation technology, a way to download the Ancient Repository of Knowledge into something that was a human skull, and even the Sangraal, only we were wisely keeping all information and research on that within the Cosmic Warehouse where no ascended beings could see it.

Originally I hadn't wanted to do any research into the Sangraal, but in other universes I might met hostile higher powers who needed dealing with. Such as the gods of Chaos. I could only hope that Jump Chan, who'd I'd not seen in a while, didn't mistake it as an attempt to harm her.

Seven moved from subject to subject depending on not just the group's needs, but also her own whims. Which was fine with me as there was a lot of materials and data to go through, and even Seven could get bored of a subject. I was certain that she would come back to some projects later.

Currently her research was focused on Kull warriors, well to be precise it was the samples of their armour that had her attention. The IOA had finally started being more reasonable when it came to trading tech. I suspected the leaders of a few nations had put some pressure on the IOA to make better deals in case they needed new designs for more than fighters in the future.

The armour also came with an energy weapon as Kull Warriors were armed with a wrist-mounted energy weapons with a much higher rate of fire than a staff weapon, but we had plenty of weapons already, as such it was of little interest.

From what I remembered the bodies of Kull Warriors were grown from organic material, and then given life using an Ancient Healing Device, technology that Anubis gained knowledge of during his time as an Ascended being.

This manufactured body of the kull warrior was then implanted with a "blank" Goa'uld symbiote, spawned by a Queen who deliberately withholds her genetic memory from her progeny. This resulted in a creature that was utterly obedient to its master.

The armored suit worn by a Kull Warrior was bonded to its host, however it could be removed and worn by someone else. The suit was made of not just armour, but also a Kevlar-like woven fiber that absorbs energy, making them impervious to energy weapons such as staff weapons and zats, as well as firearms and explosives, including armor-piercing bullets, C4 explosives, Claymore mines, and even light missiles. How much of that toughness was a result of the layers of armour, and how much was due to the being wearing the armour was something Seven needed to find out.

While wearing the suit Kull warriors were also unaffected by force-fields. However, Samantha Carter found that a small, sharp object, such as a trinium dart, can penetrate the armor. This weakness did not concern us as something like a dart could be easily stopped by a kinetic barrier.

"How is it going?" I asked the former Borg drone.

Seven turned to face me, placing her hands behind her back while relaxing her stance. It seemed almost military.

"It may be some time before I can work on the outer sections of the armour as the materials involved are unfamiliar to me. For now I have begun attempting to synthesize the thin material kull warriors wear" she told me "It is not only highly durable, it also has energy absorbing properties. If added to our existing armour technology it would be a great improvement".

The armour we used these days were modified sets of Vanir environmental suits, which didn't handle energy weapons as well as it could, as it was meant for dealing with stuff like intense heat, cold, toxic gases, pressure and to an extent physical impacts. Its weaknesses, if they could be called that, were countered by an energy shield that came from our life support belts and our kinetic barriers. Adding a layer of Kull warrior armour material would make our defences even more potent.

"In truth I could do with some aid in understanding Goa'uld technology" Seven admitted "I lack naquadah in my bloodstream, which may be hampering my efforts".

We didn't know how much naquadah was required to operate some Goa'uld, as such we didn't want to risk injecting ourselves with it. Plus Miranda and I already had trace amounts of Element Zero within us, and we didn't know Element Zero and Naquadah would react if mixed together inside the human body.

"I do have someone in mind who might be able to help us" I told Seven "I've gone through the files and found someone I remember from the show. She's called Anise and she is a Tok'ra, and the symbiote of her host, Freya. She is an able scientist and archaeologist. She should be able to help us. I'll have Miranda contact the SGC and make arrangements to speak with the Tok'ra".

Also it helped the host was moderately attractive. I might even consider her for a companion slot should I be able to secure her loyalty and convince her to leave her people, at least for a time.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Milky Way Galaxy.**

"I've never heard of them" I said to hologram of Cortana "I'm sure they weren't in the show".

The AI had taken the liberty of hacking the computers of the SGC during my visit to the base. It was doubtful they'd even noticed what she'd done, and that wasn't much they could do about it even they did. Besides given the things I could do for them I didn't think they'd take any action against me.

"The first members of the Pack were the Calaians, who fled their homeworld of Calai to escape the System Lord Heru'ur, with a star ship known as the _Wanderer_ being their first home. Over time, people from hundreds of worlds joined them in order to escape Goa'uld oppression. Their fleet was mainly made up of Goa'uld Ha'tak taken from the war fleet of a System Lord called Khepera".

I'd never heard of that Goa'uld.

"They were also known to trade technology with other races, deals that benefitted both sides. Eventually the Pack got in touch with the Aschen who offered them a place in their confederation, but they rejected the offer" Cortana was now telling me "However, a member of the Pack was tricked into forming a secret alliance with Mirris, a member of the Aschen confederation, who had a vendetta against the SGC, he sought to arrange for the Pack to make contact with the Tau'ri with the goal of smuggling an Aschen bio-weapon to Earth that would release a new version of the sterility pathogen on Earth".

I'd forgotten about the Aschen. They were an advanced human civilization I might be able to do business with, but I would rather not given their leadership's habit of sterilising human populations.

"Stargate Command eventually offered the Pack help in finding a planet that they could settle on and they accepted the offer after losing the _Wanderer"_. Cortana let me know.

So somewhere out there was the Milky Way version of the Travellers, only they had some Goa'uld tech, and they might badly want the kind of the supplies needed to set up and support a civilization. I could supply tons of tools, building materials, food, clothing, projectile weapons, blanks, and so on. Sometime in the future I should look for this people. When I wasn't busy with other matters.

"I have a few more suggestions" Cortana was now saying "Years ago a race known as the Eurondans started a war with a faction known as The Breeders, over an issue of "genetic purity" the Eurondans wanted. As a result, the Eurondans created plans to eradicate The Breeders forever".

Weren't they all clones or something like that. I was having trouble remembering.

"The Eurondans began to poison the atmosphere of their homeworld in order to eradicate The Breeders, but The Breeders managed to survive underground, just like Eurondans did" Cortana was soon telling me "The Eurondans had built a massive underground complex before the war began in order to be able to house themselves and continue their plans to try to eradicate the Breeders".

She had more to say.

"The two nations began to manufacture aero-fighters and unmanned vehicles, and their World War lasted for several decades. When the SGC made contact with that world The Breeders were winning the war, as the Eurondans had begun to run out of resources, such as Deuterium (heavy water), which was required for their defence field generator. SG-1 provided some much needed fuel, which almost allowed the Eurondans to win the war. However, SG-1 discovered the truth and decided to help the Breeders rather than the Eurondans in winning the war. The Breeders managed to break through the Eurondans' air defences and bomb their bunker, which led to the bunker being destroyed and all the Eurondans dying. Thus, the Breeders had won the war".

I could see where this was going.

"Since the Breeders survived, and have technology equal to the Eurondans they to should have technology such as defensive fields and remote piloted aircraft" Cortana said next "This technology is rather primitive compared to what we have, however I think it is worth acquiring because if we combine with it our own it might allow to me control whole wings of fighters".

Yes I could see that being of value. Of course we'd have to clear some space in the docking bay as currently it was full of Puddle Jumpers, and while I couldn't hand over a few to the SGC I was loathe to as they had little else to offer me. Still it might be a good idea to make the offer just to see what they would offer me in exchange.

At least it wouldn't take much to get Breeder technology, we could offer them a new world to settle or help clean up their air.

"Some time in the future I think we should also visit Orbian and acquire a technology known as an Orbanian nanite" the AI advised "the nanite a microscopic device which is injected into Urrone Orbanian children and attaches itself to the neurons in the brain, allowing the children to obtain a far greater amount of knowledge than is possible. On their 13th birthday the nanites are removed and injected into every adult and non-Urron children, to disseminate the knowledge among the population. The process leaves the children without the memories of their 13 years, and leaves their mind in an infant state".

If I remembered correctly the Orbian's may have abandoned that practice, but the tech should exist, and if so it should be added to our knowledge of nanotechnology.

"Also there is Altair, a planet SG1 visited, while there they were androids duplicates of them were made" Cortana was now saying "According to the reports the androids didn't even know they weren't real until a member of the medical team at the SGC tried to draw some blood from one of the people who were duplicated".

That did sound like interesting technology. We might never use it, but we should certainly try to acquire it.

"Another world of interest to us is Tartarus" Cortana said "It was, and perhaps still is, defended by a powerful sensor array, preventing anyone from arriving by ship unnoticed. A Stargate lies within the complex and is surrounded by a forcefield, acting as the equivalent of the Tau'ri's Iris. Tartarus was conquered by the Rebel Jaffa as a decoy but it is unknown what they did with the planet".

Tartarus was the homeworld of the Kull warriors, and since Seven was having trouble understanding them it might not be such a bad idea go there and see if any of the technology involved in their creation was left.

Cortana surely had more to tell me, but this was when an alarm went off. Soon we would be dropping out of hyperspace and picking up a new member of the crew.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Milky Way Galaxy.**

While the ship didn't exactly run on a proper command structure, everyone on board did have their own roles to play. Miranda Lawson was the ship's XO, and she dealt with the stuff the Captain, as he was sometimes known, simply didn't wish to deal with or didn't have the time to.

Mostly this involved the day to day running of the ship. Which meant doing stuff like making sure the robot crews did their jobs, that the replicators were in working order, stuff like that.

Miranda was also the person who made sure everyone had the resources and equipment that they needed. This task was most important today as new person was joining the crew. A Tok'ra scientist by the name of Anise.

The Tok'ra lacked teleportation technology, instead preferring to make use of transporter rings. Thankfully this ship had a set, since the Ancients had used them to, not that anyone had known this, even after months spent on board this vessel, not all of its system were understood.

"Welcome on board the..."

Miranda paused for a moment when she realised that Gothic still hadn't name the vessel.

"On board" the former Cerberus operative then said "If you'll follow me I'll show you to your quarters. They're right next to your workspace".

Well Anise would no doubt be useful in the future for now Gothic just wanted her working on Goa'uld tech. Some of which would be stored away in the Cosmic Warehouse, most would simply be analysed, studied, documented and the collected data stored away.

"Thank you" said Anise "I'm looking forward to starting my work, and seeing more of this amazing ship".

Miranda didn't doubt that. She also didn't doubt that this Anise would be sending secure transmissions to the rest of her people which were full of information. Miranda would be checking those transmissions to ensure that nothing harmful towards her group fell into the wrong hands. And should this Anise prove dangerous to the group then Miss Lawson would deal with her as well.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Milky Way Galaxy.**

Once of the pieces of technology that I'd been most eager to get my hands on since coming to this universe was The DNA Resequencer. Also known as the Genetic Manipulation Device.

It was a machine that could alter the DNA of any human. People that had been "resequenced" could have genetic diseases cured or reach an ultra-extreme state of human advancement, granting them what appeared to be supernatural powers, provided the operator of the device knew what they were doing.

The device was used by Goa'uld after it's original use by the Ancients to assist them in Ascension. The Goa'uld had attempted to use the machine to create humans with superpowers to take as hosts. A human in this advanced state was known as a "Hok'tar", a Goa'uld slang combination of the words "hok" meaning advanced and "tau" meaning human. It was possible that such a device was the means by how the Goa'uld created the first Jaffa. If so then it was there only known real success with the technology.

A DNA Resequencer worked by altering a subject's DNA, which if done right could result in say increased their brain activity. After Jonas Quinn, who for a time was a member of SG1, used the device, a tumor developed in his brain, which consisted of neurons which were five times more densely packed than normal.

I wanted it because it could be used to give someone near ascension abilities such as telekinesis, telepathy, super-human senses, self healing abilities, perfect memory, and the power to heal by touch.

Of course it could go horribly wrong, which was why I would be very careful with it. Years of research might be required even if I found the version of this device that was used by Anubis.

Besides from making super-advanced humans and ascending people, the machine could have other uses. It might be capable of giving people the Ancient Technology Activation gene, which Seven of Nine would very much like, and it might be possible to alter someone's DNA so that they the same kind of genetic engineering as Miranda Lawson and myself.

Another hopeful use was to repair biological flaws in a person. For example in her natural form Tali couldn't survive without an environment suit. With the right technology perhaps that could change.

I wanted Anubis's DNA Resequencer because he'd mastered using the device to the point he could make a Goa'uld/human hybrid that got very close to ascending. Not that I intended to ascend, and I didn't want to be part Goa'uld, but I wouldn't mind some of those funky near-ascended powers.

However finding that hidden lab was going to be a pain. I didn't have a gate address and even my Asgard memory enhancing stone wasn't helping much. I could remember that SG1 went to that planet because they were concerned about a nearby black hole having been made by the Ori so that they could invade this galaxy.

As it turned out that wasn't the case, which meant the black hole was natural, and there were only so many black holes even in a good sized spiral galaxy such as this one.

Hopefully a combination of probes, long range scans and information taken from the Ancient observatory would led to us finding a habitable planet that had a Stargate which was near a black hole. There couldn't be that many, and if needs be we'd search them all.

Of course this would take time so while the probes we'd sent out did the mapping I decided to take the ship to a few different worlds in this galaxy. To start with we came to the world called Tollana.

Tollana was the planet that the Tollan relocated to after the cataclysm in their home system forced them to leave. It originally lacked a Stargate, though the Tollans were able to build one with the help of the Nox. The Tollans quickly constructed a new city on the planet together with advanced defenses meant to protect them.

In August 2001, the Goa'uld Tanith, who at the time was in the service of Anubis, used the modified shields on his ship to protect his vessel from the Tollans' ion cannons and then forced them to do the bidding of his master. After Tanith's plan was foiled due to the intervention of SG-1, Tanith razed the planet.

The Tollan planet and way of life was completely devastated as a result of the Goa'uld's ruthlessness. In the show it was never revealed if any of the Tollan people survived the bombardment.

Now that I was here I could confirm that the advanced civilization which had once lived on this world was now gone. By the looks of things the humans who'd lived here, had centered themselves around a single city, which made sense as they must have lost a lot of people when their first home world was destroyed.

What remained of that city was just a pile of radioactive rubble, there were no life signs left, no intact structures to scan, and no energy readings to investigate. Anubis had wiped them all out, and if there had been any survivors they'd long since left or they'd been taken prisoner by Anubis so that they could mind probed for information on their advanced technology.

Heliopolis had been equally disappointing, whatever had been there, was now lost time and the sea.

"There is nothing here worth investigating" Seven of Nine declared, her assessment agreeing with mine "I suggest that we unbury the gate and let Stargate Command go through the ruins if they so wish".

Restoring the Stargate to working order would be worth the effort because the radiation levels were already below lethal levels, meaning that future generations could settle here.

"Very well" I said to Seven of Nine "We can take a Puddle Jumper down just in case the DHD was destroyed".

It was beyond our ability to replace the DHD right now, but maybe we could try to build one in the future. Should be able to do that perhaps we could do the same at Heliopolis, that way these forgotten worlds could have a future as well as a past.

(Line Break)

 **Anubis' Lab. Milky Way Galaxy.**

It had taken weeks of searching, which involved sending out many probes, taking countless scans, and now we'd found it. The lab that not only contained the equipment needed to alter someone's DNA, but also Anubis' priceless research and his sort of son Khalek.

Khalek was a Human-Goa'uld Hybrid created by Anubis in this very lab. Anubis somehow reconstructed his own DNA, combined it with Human DNA, and accelerated Khalek's evolutionary development using a DNA resequencer.

Because he was part Goa'uld this meant Khalek had the genetic memory of Anubis, along with Anubis' sociopathic and homicidal tendencies. In the show he even referred to Anubis as his "father".

He possessed various powers of those near ascension such as psychokinesis, telekinesis, telepathy, rapid healing ability, and perhaps even had the mental development to achieve Ascension.

In the show SG-1 took him out of stasis and brought him back to Stargate Command for a check-up, thinking he'd been an unwilling test subject, he initially claimed to be a victim of Anubis' experiments, but Dr. Daniel Jackson soon discovered the truth.

Jackson warned that the risks Khalek presented were too great to allow him to live, but a member of the IOA called Richard Woolsey advocated studying him, reasoning that analysis of Khalek might both help them learn more about their own future evolution and devise a means of stopping someone with Khalek's powers. Which was something the IOA was concerned about because of the Priors of the Ori.

During subsequent conversations between him and Jackson, Khalek often taunted Jackson with reference to the confrontation between Jackson and Anubis when Daniel was Ascended, which he somehow knew about, as well as constant references to his own desire to kill.

Jackson proved to be right about the danger presented by Khalek, and Khalek killed some guards while trying to escape. He gated to P3X-584, but the Call forwarding device that had initially prevented SG-1 dialling that address had been reprogrammed to send him back to Stargate Command.

Before he could overcome his surprise at this unexpected turn of events, Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell and Dr. Jackson shot and killed Khalek while he was distracted. Which was important to remember as should I gain near-ascended powers, they would not make me indestructible.

Another issue was that I'd gotten here long before anyone from the SGC had so Khalek was here, right in front of me, in stasis.

"Another interesting moral quandary" I muttered to myself.

If I killed him I could save some lives down the road, the guy in stasis was part Goa'uld, part Anubis, as such he shared that race's desire to dominate and he lacked any humanity. He would get out one day. But as of yet he hadn't actually done anything wrong.

"Is this person a threat?" asked Cameron.

She might not be that emotional, but she was good at reading my moods. She knew that I was worried and why.

"Oh most certainly" I told her.

Before anyone could react my Terminator ripped the door off the stasis chamber and used her disruptor rifle to vaporise Khalek. Which while shocking, did at least solve the problem.

"I will need a few hours to examine everything before we can start moving this equipment to the ship" Seven of Nine told me, having not been too disturbed by Khalek's death "Once it is all on board I can begin trying to understand how it all works".

Yes that would take some time. But there was no rush. We had years.


	14. Chapter 14

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 14**

 **Aurora-class Warship. Milky Way Galaxy.**

I'd spent my say supervising the careful loading, unloading and then setting up of all the equipment that had been taken from Anubis's hidden lab. Of course the robots performing the task could do so quite well without my aid, as they were under the direct control of my AI Cortana, however the stuff they were moving was highly valuable to me, as such I felt the need to be present.

"This technology seems very important to you" said Seven of Nine as we watched the robots work "May I ask why?".

I was surprised that she needed to ask.

"Because if we can master this technology then we can progress much further down the road to perfection" I said to the former Borg drone "Once we can control this technology, we could slice in the ATA gene right into your DNA, we can use it to increase our intelligence, gain near-ascended powers, and perhaps even other abilities that come from having the right genetics. For example in this galaxy there's a people called Langarans **,** a human race native to Langara".

They were divided into three superpowers: Kelowna, Tirania, and the Andari Federation. The Langaran civilizations have technology roughly equivalent to that of Earth near the end of World War II.

The three superpowers had undergone a long period of mistrust, but a military alliance between Tirania and the Andari Federation caused Kelowna to design a naquadria bomb. Which was even more deadly than a nuclear bomb as naquadria was much like naqudah, in that it could be used to enhance weapons.

Thankfully the detonation of the naquadria bomb actually de-escalated tensions in the long term by getting the three powers to come to the negotiating table, eventually agreeing to the creation of a world ruling body according to the SGC files.

"There's some evidence to suggest that they are better at retaining information and remembering things than humans from Earth" was what I said next "Although that might be limited to some special cases. However if it isn't then we could find what bit of DNA has mutated to allow that and slice into ourselves".

And that was just one option.

"If we can get access to Ancient DNA we can upgrade ourselves greatly" I then added.

Seven seemed concerned.

"Tamping with nature's design can have unforeseen consequences" she warned.

Well of course we'd have to be very careful, and not go around altering people without a lot of research and not without running many simulations.

"If nothing else we could copy Miranda's engineered genes" I mused "and try to fix Tali's immune system so that she doesn't have spend all her time as human or an environment suit".

Really the possibilities were endless, and not just limited to this universe. Should I learn to control this technology I could splice myself with DNA from any number of sources, such as advanced aliens, mutants, and even traits for animal species if I so wished.

"At the very least I want to accelerate my own evolution" I admitted to Seven "If I can upgrade my mind enough I could use the Ancient Knowledge Repository".

The mere idea of obtaining that wealth of knowledge sent a shiver of pleasure through my body. Some men craved gold, some wanted power, others even longed after love. Me I desired the secrets of the universe.

They were so close, that machine in Merlin's stasis chamber, all I had to do was stick my head in and blam I'd know so much. Of course at my current state of evolution the sheer amount of knowledge would kill me with days, yet part of me felt it might be worth it since if I died I'd just return to my dimension of origin. I might not retain the knowledge, but it would be mine for a time.

"Have you considered the fact that this technology might be the key to saving the Asgard?" Seven wondered.

Indeed I had.

"Yes" I told her "But I have no intention of giving them this technology, I'm worried that they might take it from us for fear of what it could do in the wrong hands"

Seven considered this for a few moments.

"I can understand your concern" she said "However we could appeal to the Asgard to help understand this technology, and offer them access to it for more of their technology".

Somewhat risky, but a risk that could be minimised if handled right. If we worked with the Asgard in learning to control this technology, that would make use seem more responsible and trustworthy. And while the Asgard were loathe to share their technology, at least most of the time, we were hardly primitives, and if we could save their race with this technology. They'd owe us big time.

"I'll contact Atlantis" I told Seven "It'll be faster if the Asgard come to us".

(Line Break)

 **Jaffa World. Milky Way Galaxy.**

Now that the Jaffa could no longer simply take what they wanted from human slaves or the people they conquered, they now had trade just like everyone else, which meant that markets such as this one had quickly sprung up all over the galaxy.

In the Pegasus Galaxy humans used the gates to visit other worlds for the purpose of trade all the time, and for other reasons that I could only speculate on, however until recently that hadn't been the case in this galaxy as on most Goa'uld worlds, which were former Goa'uld worlds now, travel through the Stargate had been limited, and many humans had see the Stargate as something only for use by the gods. Many worlds had even buried their gates.

While that hadn't changed for everyone it was clear to me as I walked through this market that the situation was rapidly changing. People from dozens of worlds had to be here, all trying to sell their crap to each other. Not just Jaffa either, but humans as well.

Miranda, Cameron and I were at the market looking for rare bits of technology, and while the other buyers came from many different worlds, none drew the kind of attention we did. I suspected that if we hadn't been so heavily armed and armoured, that someone would have tried to rob us.

Of course it didn't help that we had big backpacks stuff we some of the trinkcets we'd brought so far, and paying with slips of weapons grade naquadah also drew attention. Weapons grade naquadah, which I could produce using the Elemental Furnace, was a lot like gold pressed latinum in the Trek verses, even a few grams of such high quality naquadah could be used a currency.

Goa'uld technology was based primarily around the use of naquadah, a substance that the Goa'uld secrete into the bloodstream of their hosts. Naquadah was also used as a sort of interface initializer to interact with their most valuable technology, such as the hand device and healing device, similar to the Ancient Technology Activation Gene.

"Oh those would look great in my office" I stated.

I was now looking a collection of Jaffa helmets, they would indeed look great in my office, the space on the ship that was near the bridge that I'd recently claimed as a sort of Captain's ready room.

While in the service of the Goa'uld System Lords, the Jaffa guards, those warriors who served their masters most directly, often wore helmets that hid their features and intimidated the System Lord's human slaves. These were typically modeled after an animal associated with the particular Goa'uld the Jaffa served; for example, Apophis's Serpent Guards wore cobra masks while Ra's Horus Guards wore falcon masks.

The more complicated helmets (such as Horus helmets) could be retracted into the body armor of the Jaffa, or taken off the armor completely, while simpler models (such as Serpent helmets) simply opened to expose the Jaffa's face.

Upon occasion, System Lords themselves would wear more ornate versions of Jaffa masks to deceive their human slaves (Ra in particular was well-known for his opulent mask), or on the rare occasion where they would personally join their Jaffa in battle.

Helmeted Jaffa were sometimes seen directing unmasked Jaffa. This could indicate the masks are also a level of authority. Which would make sense since helmeted Jaffa often serve their gods as guards.

Before me were helmets of Horus guards, which were bird like, some sort of jackal, and of course the well known snake heads of the Serpent guards. Also ones that I didn't recognize such as some sort of fearsome looking lizard, possibly meant to be a dragon, and a crocodile helmet.

"Lugging them back to the ship would be a pain" Miranda complained.

We'd already found examples of the few bits of Goa'uld technology that we hadn't been able to get from the SGC, such as Kara Kesh, or hand device, which was commonly worn by Goa'uld. As for stuff like staff weapons, and Zat'nik'tels, as such unless they wanted to drag a staff cannon back to the cloaked Puddle Jumper then we were so taking those helmets. It would be better if they were trophies taken from defeated foes, but somehow I didn't think we'd be fighting any Jaffa in the future.

As for getting this stuff back to the ship. Well all we had to do was get the Puddle Jumper, and then we could use the gate to get to the planet my ship was currently in orbit of. It was a shame that I'd left Seven and Tali behind to oversee the latest Asgard upgrades, we could have used an extra set of hands.

(Line Break)

 **Stargate Command. Earth.**

Jack O'Neill smiled as he saw his old friend Teal'c, who was in the company of several Jaffa, exited the gate and make his way down the ramp.

"Hi fellas" he greeted "What can I do you for?".

Bra'tac stepped forward.

"While the Jaffa Nation has not been truly formed the council has already begun planning the future of our people" the old warrior said "One of course is foster stronger ties with our allies, the Tauri most of all".

So far this sounded pleasant.

"To that end we have brought some our best and brightest young warriors to serve along side the warriors of Earth, including my own son" Teal'c informed the leader of the SGC "Just as I once did".

The former First Prime had been spending more and more time offworld in recent weeks as he worked to help found the Free Jaffa Nation, and to assist his people in destroying or capturing the last strongholds of the false gods.

While O'Neill could see some issues with having some Jaffa join active teams, he would find ways to make it work. The galaxy was rapidly changing, and with the Jaffa becoming a galactic power it would be a good idea to form stronger bonds with them.

"Alright" said O'Neill "Let's you kids get settled in while I have words with Teal'c about springing surprises on people".

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Milky Way.**

My ship was playing host to quite a few people rather suddenly. Normally the vessel was practically empty, now it seemed crowded. Of course it wasn't as there was only a small team of Asgard on board.

Some were here to oversee the installation of new technology, which was going well, others were here just for the genetic resequencer. One of those people was Heimdall.

Heimdall was an Asgard geneticist and, unlike some other Asgard, who would remain nameless, Heimdall was quite affable, showing a much more jovial, friendly, and enthusiastic attitude while dealing with Humans.

In the show she, Heimdall seemed female to me, was introduced after an ancient Asgard ship containing three cryogenically frozen Asgard was discovered after 30,000 years being adrift, the Asgard came to believe the last perfectly preserved Asgard ancestor might hold the key to the Asgard's failing cloning technology, and Heimdall chose to study her ancient ancestor.

To prevent the Replicators from intervening, this study took place on Adara II, an uninhabited planet in the Milky Way galaxy, protected by the Protected Planets Treaty. Unfortunately, the research outpost was discovered by the Goa'uld Anubis, who sent a ship under the command of Osiris to the planet.

Thor attacked the invading Ha'tak, this was allowed according to the Treaty, but his ship was destroyed as Anubis had upgraded his fleet with Ancient technology.

As the Asgard were occupied fighting the Replicators, the Asgard asked Stargate Command for help. SG-1, without Dr. Daniel Jackson who'd ascended sometime earlier in the timeline, were sent to the planet where they met up with Heimdall.

Once there told them about his studies and asked them to help rescue Thor, who was being held prisoners by Anubis in an attempt to gain access to Asgard technology. SG-1 was able to do so, although the laboratory was eventually invaded by Osiris. The team and Heimdall were able to flee on a Tel'tak together with Thor and Heimdall's research, and were finally rescued from the Goa'uld by three O'Neill-class ships.

"Greetings Captain Gothic" said the small alien as I entered the room the device was kept in.

While originally I'd intended to keep this technology hidden I'd figured that Seven of Nine was right and that this tech could be used to save the Asgard race. By the looks of things they thought so too, and so I was leveraging it for some real cool Asgard tech.

Surprisingly the little grey people hadn't kicked up a fuss about me wanting their coolest technology. And I was grateful for this because I was still annoyed with IOA, although at this point I was upset more because they were annoying rather than because of anything they'd done.

"Greetings Heimdall" I replied "How goes the work?".

Heimdall nodded slightly, another bit of Asgard body language that I didn't understand, but I guessed it was a sign of her approval.

"Very well" she answered "Your finding of this device may very well prove to be the salvation of the Asgard race. Combined with our own work this device could result in the creation of our future bodies".

Heimdall used an Asgard machine to display a hologram. It showed an Asgard, only this specimen was more human looking, in the sense that it was taller and seemed to have muscles, as well as what a human would consider a more reasonable shaped head.

"This new clone body is my life's work" explained Heimdall "Most of the genetic material comes from our own ancestors, but there is some Ancient DNA mixed in as well, along with some of less than ethical work done by the Vanir".

I figured there was some human in this new clone. I could see it in the eyes more than anywhere else.

"Not only is this form more robust than our current clone stock, it also capable of containing the Asgard mind, and while I can't be certain, my hope is that this form will allow to return to the path of ascension" I was then told.

That was good news, and very interesting, however it wasn't my main concern.

"What about using it for human modifications?" I asked.

Heimdall switched the hologram so that went from displaying the future Asgard to that of a naked human male, only without the genitals. Apparently the Asgard had censorship.

"While the device was calibrated for a Goa'uld-Human hybrid, its function is to alter human DNA only" Heimdall informed me "It should be a simple task to calibrate the device for your use. However given your modified genes some alterations are required. And the device would have to be recalibrated for normal humans, should you wish to use it on anyone other than yourself".

This was good news.

"In fact I am certain that I could aid you if you wish to try advancing your own evolution" offered Heimdall "It may aid in my own research, however it will take time for me to learn the subtleties of this technology, and longer to teach others".

This was fine, there was really no rush, and I had other things to do while I was in this galaxy.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Milky Way.**

While I still intend to return to the Pegasus galaxy in the near future, there really was no rush, and while many of the more advanced human worlds had been crushed by Anubis or simply weren't interested in trading with outsiders, there were a few exceptions.

A group of humans, who were called the Optricans, welcomed me to visit their world, and were offering tech exchange if I would use my star ship, they didn't have much in the way of space exploration despite being an advanced culture, to help end the war.

This war was the Bedrosian-Optrican war, a conflict between the Bedrosians and Optricans, the two human nations who ruled this world.

The Bedrosians were a race of Humans who are descended from the Tau'ri of Earth, though they did not believe this to be the case. Instead, they believed that the Goa'uld, Nefertum, created them on their homeworld, rather than having been taken through the Stargate.

Despite being descended from the Tau'ri, by the early 21st century, the Bedrosians were in fact more technologically advanced than their brethren from Earth.

The war between them began because of a difference in religious beliefs, with the Bedrosians believing in a long-departed Goa'uld, Nefertum, as their god and creator; and the Optricans believing that they had been brought through the Stargate from another world.

In my view this was a foolish war, mostly because the Optricans were right, they had been brought here from another world, and I was sure the Bedrosians leaders also knew this to be true. However they would never admit it since then they'd lose all their power as their nation collapsed.

Truth be told I didn't want to get involved in a war, but the Optricans had technologies I desired. Such as Optical regenerators, small devices capable of restoring the sight of a blinded individual. While a person feels pain as the nerve in the eye regenerates, that would be a small price to pay to escape blindness. And having once been short sighted I knew that many people other than the blind could benefit from this technology.

"Okay let's get this over and done with quickly" I said.

Using my mental control of the ship I moved it from a high orbit into a lower one, and I prepared the weapons to fire.

(Line Break)

 **P2X-416. Milky Way Galaxy.**

Rigar, a commander of Bedrosian forces, looked around the military base as the alarms went off, he didn't know where the attack was coming from, but he would do his duty, and serve his country.

The disheartening thing was he knew the damn enemy were right, he even knew that the gateway which had been buried during the Great Upheaval and later dug up by a small team of archaeologists was being studied by the top scientists and engineers Bedrosia had, but nonetheless he was here fighting to maintain a lie.

In his heart he didn't want to accept the truth, to accept that the beliefs he had been raised with were false and that so many of his people had died for nothing, but he could never forget what he had seen no matter how much he would want to.

He still carried his well-worn copy of the Book of Nefertum in his pack, he still pretended to offer his prayers and devotion, because it was expected of him and good for morale, but it was just a myth to him now, and instead of offering comfort it just made him want to throw up every time he heard the Chaplains talk about the rightness of their cause and how victory was certain because Nefertum was on their side.

While the words were hollow to Rigar, the men and women under his command still believed them, and while they were no savages, they would fight like fanatics when the Optrican heathens attacked.

That was when things started to go wrong. An automated gun position which was part of the bases' defences, suddenly exploded. A bolt of energy had fallen from the sky, and had simply wiped the automated anti-air gun out of existence.

Rigar looked up as something blocked out the sun. It was a massive vessel of some kind, it was hard for the man to judge the scale, however its great size could not be denied, nor could its deadly weapons.

Fighters started to engage the huge craft, but their own fire splashed harmlessly against a energy shield that came into view for a brief moment every time it was struck. Both the Bedrosians and Optricans had force-field technology but nothing remotely that resilient and as the huge craft continued on its way it started firing other weapons. Rigar did not know what a drone weapon was, but he knew what devastation they could cause.

Soon more Bedrosian fighters took the skies, only they started to fall in greater and greater numbers as they attempted to fight back against the floating behemoth. Yet they weren't all shot down, some just crashed, it was if their pilots had all lost control over their craft.

"In Nefertum's name, what is it Sir' a junior officer called out to Rigar.

He didn't know what the vessel was exactly, but he knew what its presence here meant.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Milky Way.**

I smiled in pleasure as the drone weapons flew through the sky, each seeking out the local's automated defences and blowing them apart no matter where they were. I was striking down targets hundreds of miles away without harming a single soul.

As for the enemy fighters. We could use our transporters even with the shields up, so I had the transporters beam the pilots out of their ships and onto the ground below before a pulse cannon took out the small craft. The new Asgard transporters were much easier to use and much faster in operation than the old ones.

A few crashed, as I could only keep my attention focused on so much of what was going on, but I did my best to limit any harm being done to people. After all it wasn't their fault that Goa'uld propaganda had become a state religion.

"Gothic there are Bedrosian ground troops below us along with a large number of grounded shuttlecraft" Seven of Nine reported from her post, which she was using to take scans of the surface "What are we going to do with them?".

I'd decided to avoid loss of life at all cost. The natives were misled not evil, and they were no threat to me.

"Time to try out the newest bit of tech the Asgard gave us" I said.

While I couldn't see it I knew that right now a beam of energy was lancing about removing the shuttles without harming anything organic, which in this meant the humans, who were currently running around trying to board the shuttles. The fighters were too fast moving to do this too, which was why I hadn't used this technology yet.

This technology was what Thor had used against the forces of Heru'ur, when they invaded one of the planets that was protected by the treaty. It was a combination of transporter and tractor beam. Which could be used to dematerialise matter without it being materialized elsewhere, or it could be broken down and stored inside the ship. Which gave us access to plenty of high grade materials which could be fed into the Elemental Furnace for stuff like Naquadah.

"At this rate the Bedrosians won't have a much of a military left" I heard Miranda commented.

Which was the whole point. With no aircraft or an anti-air defences, the Optricans would have totally control over air-space and would be able to attack the enemy leadership directly, thus forcing a surrender and an end to this war.


	15. Chapter 15

**Author Note**

Just one chapter this time so that I can bring the story up to seventy thousand words. More chapters are on the way.

 **Reviews**

 **Guest**

Flying around the universe gathering technology is a lot more fun than just copying someone's database. Plus the Atlantis database is huge, they would not be able to download that much information without anyone finding out.

 **Joe Lawyer**

Optical regenerators is like laser eye surgery that comes from a device the size of a pen. Maybe the Federation does have something like, I wouldn't know and it doesn't matter. The main reason for ending that war was to test the Asgard technology.

 **Mark Adaar**

I've already done Teen Titan stories with a Raven romance. I was thinking of the DCAU for next Jump but he'd recruit and reform some sexy villains.

 **kirosyamcha**

She seemed rather busy with her own people's problems in the show. I'd don't think she'd leave them. Plus she doesn't seem as if she'd serve Gothic like the other women do. She's a leader in her own right.

 **john777**

Actually he already has a robot crew, but they can't improve things just repair and maintain. Therefore its better to bring in experts for the upgrades.

I looked up Sujanha, and decided to have him appear briefly in the story.

 **Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 15**

 **Aurora-class Warship. Void Between Galaxies.**

While normally I entered one of Seven's lab in order to check on her progress with some project of hers. Today that wasn't the case, she was tinkering with something, however she was my main concern, not her work.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

Seven had been the first to try the DNA altering machine, because she badly wanted the ATA gene, mostly so she could use all the ship's systems, and adding it to her DNA was a good way to test the technology. However while it had been a simple alteration of her genetics, at least in theory, I couldn't help worrying. Things could wrong, and while so far they didn't seem to be, I figured they still could. Best to keep on eye on her.

"I am fine" Seven told me.

Currently she was attaching a helmet to one of the suits of armour we used. Normally it was Tali who performed the modifications Seven designed, as she was the engineer, but this time it was Seven who had gotten her hands dirty. She was in the process of applying this new modification to all the suits.

"What are you up to?" I asked, while walking further into the lab.

By the looks of all the tools, and the empty plates of what were no doubt her nutritional supplements, she'd been in here for a while. That or she was much more hungry than normal, it could be that as a side effect of having your DNA messed with. I remember Rodney Mckay eating a lot when he got 'evolved'.

"I have made a small modification to our armour suits" she told me "Upon inspecting the helmets used by the Jaffa, I discovered that they collapse themselves into the armour. Allowing the removal of the helmet without the wearer having to take off the helmet and carry it. I have added this feature to our own armour".

After moving over to one of the suits, the former Borg drone pressed a small button on where the neck would be if someone was wearing the armour, and the helmet retracted into the suit. She then reversed the process.

"Cool" I commented.

It was good that we could take all the technology I was working so hard to gather and find practical uses for it.

"Well we still have a couple of weeks before we make it to Atlantis" I said to Seven, trying to sound causal "Plenty of time to mess with our genetics".

Merlin, or Moros to give him his proper name, had taken command of Atlantis as hoped, and was now calling me to Atlantis on a matter of great importance. I didn't know what that actually meant, but the leader of the remaining Ancients wouldn't be calling upon me unless it was important. I suspected that whatever was happening there, it would affect the lives of people in more than one galaxy. Which meant it was something I wanted to be involved in.

"I'll be in my office, if you need me" I then said to Seven.

She barely acknowledge my departer, she was already engrossed in some other piece of work. I made a mental note telling myself that it would a good idea to force Seven to take some time off in the future.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Void Between Galaxies.**

Heimdall the Asgard geneticist, had quickly come to understand how to use this technology, which I was now going to refer to as the Ascension machine, despite the fact that it was really several devices working together.

Ascension was a process that allows beings to leave behind a physical existence and live eternally as pure energy in a higher plane of existence, this also gives the ascended person a greater amount of knowledge and power than mere mortals.

It could be a mental, spiritual or even a so called evolutionary process, a direct result of obtaining a certain level of wisdom and knowledge as a person, or even more of a biological process. There were a few paths towards ascension, and while the routes there could be very different from each other the end result was the same,

The Ancients were the first known race to ascend and some of them, such as Oma Desala, attempted to teach the "lowers", those who lived lives on the physical plane to ascend without the use of technology, or millions of years of evolution.

When he first met Oma Desala, Doctor. Daniel Jackson speculated that this is what the Earth religion of Buddhism is based on, and that Oma Desala was Mother Nature along with the other Ancients being spirits. Not that this was the truth.

According to research by Dr. Rodney McKay, once the brain achieved 90% synaptic activity, a person attempting to ascend must achieve an EEG of 0.1 to 0.9 hertz, during which they will learn how to convert their body into energy. If they do not achieve ascension before 96% synaptic activity is achieved, the lower functions of the brain will shut down. I didn't understand how or why this was, nor did it really matter to me.

What did matter was that Ascension as a physical process involved a human who has the ability to use approximately 90% of their cerebral capacity. They can learn to Ascend without much problem, gaining more and more power as a mortal. This is related to the myth of which the people only use 10% of their brains, with no real justification. Unlike the spiritual this form of Ascension does not require the being to be good of heart.

Near ascension, which was the state of being I was aiming for, occured when a Human was evolving to the point of Ascension, but didn't need to shed his or her physical form to become pure energy. It was actually a term that could be used on a whole array of more evolved humans.

A normal human brain performs at 10% maximum capacity at any one time, but they require at least 92% to ascend, however from my understanding that whole idea of humans only using ten percent of their brain was a misunderstanding. There was a difference between mental capacity and brain usage. Humans closer to ascension didn't actually use more of the brain, they just used it better.

But again this wasn't what really mattered. What I cared about was that the state of near-ascension gives humans such as myself special abilities due to the heightened brain activity. The abilities become stronger and more diverse as the brain activity increases.

eThese power included stuff like Healing; Near-ascended humans has the power to heal themselves rapidly and also the ability to heal others, even if they had major wounds, maybe even bring back those who had recently died. They can also cure diseases. Priors have shown the ability to cure the Ori plague, though it is unknown if this is through technology or their near-ascended power

Some states of Near-ascension can also allow the user to see visions of the future and share them with others. These visions have always come true, although the user cannot tell when or where what he sees will happen, or under what context. Which made them rather unless in my view. Hopefully I wouldn't get that power.

Psychokinesis, also known as telekinesis, was the ability to move objects that one can or cannot see with the power of their mind. Beings near ascension are able to demonstrate psychokinesis.

An example of this Cassandra Fraiser was given psycokinetic abilities by Nirrti in an attempt to create a Hok'tar (advanced human) host; through a retrovirus, and this could also be done via DNA resequencer.

In the show Priors also demonstrated the ability to use psychokinesis, as have de-ascended beings such as Merlin, and Daniel Jackson after downloading Merlin's memories. Rodney McKay also gained telekinesis when exposed to a Ancient Device that was designed to accelerate a human's natural evolution. That device was in Atlantis, and while it might be possible for to gain access to it, I'd rather not since it didn't work that well.

Technopathy (the ability to manipulate machinery): Some near ascended beings have displayed the ability to control various forms of technology. Priors in particular have displayed the ability to control Ori warships with just their mind alone while Adria could also sort through a DHD's memory and determine the last address dialed. While possessing the mind and abilities of Merlin as well as a Prior, Doctor Daniel Jackson was able to take control of the systems of the _Odyssey_ with his mind, fly an Ori warship and dial the Supergate.

There were other powers I could gain as well, the ability to create and control fire, was a good example, but more than anything I was hoping for the increased intelligence and the ability to comprehend the mysterious of the universe.

Shortly after leaving the Alteran Home Galaxy, the Ancients began to develop these abilities, and eventually ascended, but some of the technology they left behind has allowed others to follow the same path. The Ori also ascended (but later than the Ancients,) and without the assistance of technology

Heimdall, the Asgard who would be operating the devices required to evolve a human being on the path towards ascension, was now finishing up her preparations. With the help of my companions she'd already added the ATA gene to Seven's DNA, and now she was preparing to evolve me. In time others might use this device, but none of my companions seemed eager to.

Not that the path to ascension was true evolution, which was about using adaptation to better survive in your habitat. A common misconception by many was that evolution has goals, long-term plans, or an innate tendency towards "progress", as expressed in beliefs such as orthogenesis and evolutionism; realistically however, evolution has no long-term goal and does not necessarily produce greater complexity in life forms.

As such ascension, and the states of being that led towards it, were not really about evolving and more about improving oneself, which was a noble goal, but ascension was not a natural process even if it could be considered spiritual.

I'd never understood why some science fiction settings have people in them that consider evolution to be something divine, it was just a natural process, worthy of no more respect than gravity or weather cycles.

"We are ready to begin" Heimdall informed me "Please step into the stasis chamber".

The actual treatment would take very little time on a person out of stasis, however rapidly changing a person's DNA could place a lot of strain on a body, so it was best done while in stasis. Unlike Prothean stasis technology, the Ancient version of the technology didn't pause a person's biological processes, rather they were greatly slowed down. This meant the changes to my DNA would take place over weeks rather than mere hours, meaning there would be plenty of time to deal with any problems that came up.

In fact by the time the first treatment was done our long journey between two galaxies would be over.

"Okay here goes nothing" I said while stepping into the stasis chamber.

The last thing I saw for a good long while was something that looked like ice forming over me.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

For a while now Jennifer Keller had been poking and prodding me with a number of implements, and she'd also been scanning me with devices. All of which seemed interesting to her, but I found myself getting bored.

I'd only been through one treatment in the ascension machine, which was my name for the DNA resequer and the equipment required to take a human being, such as myself, and push him or her down the road to ascension. Which while not a journey I intended to finish, I did intend to get somewhere near the end.

"You took a big risk using that machine" Keller was saying "DNA isn't something you should mess about with".

Her concern was unwanted and unneeded.

"You forget that my team have experience with advance technology" I said to the doctor "We know what we're doing, and we have the help of the Asgard".

Another person moved over to scan me with some device.

"Indeed you do" said the Asgard known as Sujanha.

Sujanha was a female sounding Asgard who, sometime during the 1500s, made a theoretical breakthrough in the field of Human psionics. With these theories, Sujanha believed that she could allow the Naranjani, natives of the planet Naranjan, to reach their full psionic potential without using the complex rituals which had previously been employed by the Nivashan. Using Asgard technology to disguise herself as a Human, Sujanha went to the planet Naranjan and began teaching students her methods. Her theoretical breakthrough was proved a success and her efforts were ultimately successful, but the full-scale introduction of psionics proved disruptive to society on Naranjan, leading to widespread rebellion against the ruling Nivashan.

The job of Sujanha wasn't just to monitor and study me so that the Asgard could learn more about how to achieve ascension, which was the main reason for their involvement in this project, but also to help me learn how to use my abilities.

In the show those that achieved a state of Near ascension seemed to be able to use their abilities right away, however their 'evolution' was also very rapid and most often it would have been fatal.

My circumstances were different. Not only was I being 'evolved' at a slower rate via some careful and controlled treatments, I wasn't a human who was the result of the Ancients seeding life in two different galaxies, add into the fact that I was already more advanced than other humans, and we couldn't be sure that I would just know how to use my powers.

Sujanha wasn't the only one who could teach me, some of the remaining Ancients, including Merlin, had the abilities of near-ascended beings. Also the Nox had similar powers, only they were pacifists, and since I was a soldier of sorts, they might not be willing to teach me. Still it wouldn't hurt to ask, they wouldn't harm me, they would just say no or yes.

Another option was The Cloister which was a village in a valley within a Time dilation field. It originally was created by the Lanteans as a safe place where humans could evolve and ascend without fear of being culled by the Wraith.

Time within the field travels around 250 times faster then in outside world. So in theory I could go in there and learn a lot of ascension from the spiritual side of things, while very little time would pass outside of the field. However I didn't know how much of my ten years in this universe would be used up if I went into a time dilation field.

This was more of a long term concern as it was unlikely that I'd develop any mental powers until after a couple of more treatments. For now any changes would be to limited to my intelligence, which like my ability to recall and ability to learn, should be increased.

Another person who was studying me was Sigyn an Asgard, one of their most intelligent—who once worked on the Asgard life-extension project with other Asgard, including Heimdall, and Fenrir at least until the Replicators became a major threat and Fenrir left the project to work on military research.

Sigyn was more interested in the genetics that already extended by life, and how further 'evolution' could affect that.

"I assure you Doctor Keller" said Heimdall, who was at nearby machine "I would not have allowed Captain Gothic to undergo the first treatment if I believed that it could endanger his life".

A debate may have broken out, but I was saved from this by Miranda, who over the intercom, declared that we would soon be arriving at Atlantis.

(Line Break)

 **Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Upon returning to Atlantis I was surprised to find an entire fleet in orbit. Not only were two remaining Aurora-class warship under the control of the Ancients, here, there was also an Asgard built O'Neill class battlecruiser in the system and half a dozen Traveller ships as, which were led by their Aurora-class warship.

As it turned out the leaders of the Ancients, Merlin and the two captains of their last warships, had invited others, such as the leaders of the Traveller's, Supreme Commander Thor, SG1, and some other people from Earth, and myself, to discuss something that would affect the future of this galaxy. There even a few people from the more advanced humans worlds of this galaxy in attendance.

The main meeting, the one which I'd been called for, would only involve a handful of people, the three Ancient leaders, Mr Woolsey of the IOA, Colonel Caldwell, myself, Thor of the Asgard, and Larrin, one of the Travellers. She was heading my way right now.

Captain Larrin had born into the Travelers, a technologically advanced race of Humans living in the Pegasus galaxy. Larrin's people long ago took to space in an effort to escape the Wraith, living their entire lives on board a fleet of ships. Though their nomadic lifestyle was originally a defensive action, by Larrin's time, it has become a part of their culture. Recently Larrin had become the commander of one of the ships in the Traveler fleet but the fleet was aging and her people lacked the resources to build new ships. Despite strict population controls, they were running out of space and needed to find new ships.

At some point the Travelers discovered a derelict _Aurora_ -class battleship which had been left in orbit of a dwarf star for thousands of years. They were soon able to access the ship's logs and learned that the Lantean vessel had been abandoned by its crew after a Wraith attack had left it with a radiation leak from the main drive, along with damage to sublight engines and communication systems.

Hoping to utilize the vessel to house some of their people, the Travelers attempt to restore it to operational status. Though they were able to use shield emitters to keep key areas of the ship clear of radiation, their efforts to restore the ship proved unsuccessful and, after two months of work, Larrin's chief science officer, Nevik, had been unable to restore full power to the vessel.

The Travelers began work on a control interface adapter which would allow them to operate the vessel. However, in order for the device to work, they needed genetic material from somebody with the Ancient Technology Activation gene.

Larrin got her hands on me much sooner than she would have taken Shepard in the show, and while I'd been lured on board one of their ships under false pretences, I'd decided to aid them anyway in exchange for some of their tech. Building an interface had proven rather simple for Seven of Nine, as she'd been trying to find ways to work around the ATA gene for a while now.

This deal had benefited her people more than mine in terms of materials gained, since they'd gotten a working Ancient warship out of the deal, as well as a load of raw materials, but since I had replicators and a Matter Furnace, raw materials were for me, rather easy to come by. Still I'd gained some technology, and some of it might come in handy one day.

"Captain Larrin" I greeted.

"Captain Gothic" I replied.

Currently I was outside admiring the view, while waiting for the proper meeting to depart.

"How's your new ship?" I asked.

She told that it was doing fine.

"So any idea why we were summoned to Atlantis?" I asked.

If it was something concerning this galaxy then she was far more likely to have heard about it than myself.

"Not sure" she said "but I heard something about a new threat".

Oh great, that was all we needed.

"Captain Gothic, Captain Larrin" said one of the Ancients "If you'll follow me, the meeting is about to begin".

(Line Break)

 **Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"While there has been some disagreement between over whether or not we should totally wipe out the Wraith or not" Merlin, the leader of Atlantis, began by saying "It was finally agreed that at the very least we should hunt down and destroy all the Wraith ship we could find in this quadrant of the galaxy".

City-ships such as Atlantis had great sensors, and could track Wraith ships that weren't dormant over a good chunk of the galaxy. Therefore the Ancients should have been able to hunt down and destroy a decent percentage of the Wraith out there without any help.

However since some of the Ancients wanted to ascend, and that did involve a measure of spirituality for the most part, so they must not think that totally wiping out an intelligent race was a moral action.

Which I could understand, however since it was their race that created the Wraith, if indirectly, as well as the humans the Wraith preyed upon, then they should deal with issue themselves.

"As part of this campaign we sent both of our remaining warships to deal with vulnerable Wraith Hives" the leader of Atlantis was now saying "While so far they have been successful in defeating the Wraith, sending them away nearly proved to be a fatal mistake".

A hologram was displayed into the air above us, which I hadn't known could be done in the meeting room, and the image became one of a ship. One that my new and improved memory recall ability allowed me to remember.

Information was displayed as well, as such I could tell that the ship was not much smaller than a _Daedalus_ class ships. Which made it much smaller than a Wraith Hive ship, and much smaller than my ship.

When the hologram began to show the attack on Atlantis I saw the alien ship possessed green coloured high yield energy weapons capable of depleting Atlantis' shield rather rapidly, which meant they were more effective than Wraith weapons. The shots from the weapons had a unique look: they did not look like the pulses or beams, but rather flaming blasts.

"Little is known about the defensive capabilities of this ship except that it has shields that block drones" we were told "However when one of ships returned, we found that our pulse cannons were effective enough to drive these unknown hostiles away".

Since my ship used drones as its main weapons, I found this worrying.

"This alien ship carries a large group of fighters" Merlin was now saying "The hanger bay of this ship was protected by a green energy shield. The rest of the ship's systems are unknown to us"

Then all we knew was that these aliens had high yield energy weapons, and that there ships carried at least 15 fighters. Atlantis had scanned these fighters to, so we had some data on them. However it wasn't much, we knew they possessed energy weapons and are inferior to Earth's F-302 fighter-interceptors judging by well they manoeuvred and the speeds they reached.

As for the aliens themselves, they had no information on them. And what little I remembered wasn't going to be much help, although once I'd had a chance to the Asgard memory stone and think on things, I was sure I would be able to supply people with more info.

"Since we can leave Atlantis defenceless we must rethink our plans to rid ourselves of the Wraith" Merlin said next "The Wraith must be defeated, so I am asking our allies to support us with ships and soldiers to defend the city".

I had no problem hanging around Atlantis for a while, and we could leave as long as there were other ships here to defend the city. With that in mind I was the first to volunteer to help protect the city.


	16. Chapter 16

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis**

 **Part 16**

 **Runabout. Pegasus Galaxy.**

While rapidly evolving, if such a term really applied to what was happening to me, did come with some negative effects, such as an increased metabolism, which meant I was hungry most of the time, and frequent headaches. Overall it was worth the discomfort.

As of yet I had not developed any funky near-ascended powers, despite having undergone a second treatment in the ascension machine, but this wasn't too surprising. I wasn't what could be called a baseline human, as such my 'evolution' wouldn't progress the way it had for other humans who had gone down this path via artificial means.

However I was certain that my intelligence had increased. At first I hadn't noticed the change, then I'd been tested in separate ways by Ansie of the Tok'ra, three different Asgard and Doctor Keller, whose concern for me I hoped would blossom in a greater attachment as time went by.

This increase of intelligence had come at a good time. My ship was remaining in orbit of Lantena, the world Atlantis had remained under the ocean of for so many centuries, we had to remain there a great deal of the time in case those unknown aliens came back. So far they hadn't, which meant I had free time on my hands.

I was using that time to test just how much more intelligent I had become. I was no scientist, or engineer, so coming up with an idea and then designing a way to make it practical wasn't really my forte, I had people do that sort of thing for me, but this wasn't stopping me from trying.

The Cipher, which contained the knowledge and experience of the all Protheans whom had died on Feros before being absorbed by the plant creature called the Thorian, had become mine, and I'd been able to use it to invent, or to reinvent some impressive technology, but until now I'd been able to make proper use of the Cipher. Now that my mind was developing I was finding the Cipher easier to access.

Ironically the Cipher wasn't much help these days as I was working with technology well beyond that of even the Protheans. At least it gave me an understanding of technology that I could build upon, and this had allowed to assist Seven on one of her projects, which involved installing a hyperdrive on the runabout.

This didn't turn about to be too hard since the warp core could supply enough energy to open up a window into hyperspace, alas while we'd taken many things into account, such as subspace turbulence, which was a real thing apparently, we'd not expected to drop out of hyperspace within weapon's range of an alien warship.

"Seven, we've lost rear and lateral thrusters!" I said urgently.

We'd not come out of hyperspace with our shields up, only our navigational deflectors, and the unknown aliens, the same beings who'd attacked Atlantis, had caught us with our defences down. How they'd know we would be here was a mystery to solve later.

"I am aware of that, Gothic" the sexy cyborg replied "I took them offline. They were critically damaged and venting plasma, making a trail that is quite easy to follow. They were overheating, which may have ignited the plasma. Which would kill us both".

Well that was good and all that she'd done that, but it was bad timing as we were about to crash, and the only thing we had going for us was that unlike Starfleet Runabouts, my vessel came with seatbelts.

(Line Break)

 **Unknown Planet. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Seven of Nine and I sat beside the useless shuttle, the front of which was party buried in the ground, it was dented and all scratched up from the crash.

"Not a bad landing if I do say so," I remarked.

Seven looked at me.

"Actually, given the circumstances you did extremely well" she praised "We are alive"

And uninjured for the most part, although I was sure we both had some bruises.

"I really loved my runabout" I said to Seven "It looked so cool with painted on flames and the skull".

Plus it had a cloaking device, and an array of weapons that gave the craft a lot of firepower, an impressive amount considering its size.

"Perhaps we can see this an opportunity" suggest the former drone "Back when we served on Voyager you displayed envy over the Delta Flyer. We could attempt to construct a superior version of the Delta Flyer using the technology we have gathered so far".

Well we did have room in the vehicle bay now and while it was a nice idea, it would have to wait. For now we should concern ourselves over with predicament we were currently in.

"Any idea where we are?" I asked.

I'd been too busy trying to crash land the ship to notice which bit of the planet I'd aimed the ship at.

"Without the shuttle's computer I cannot ascertain our position" she said.

Not that it really mattered as even if this planet had a Stargate that wasn't in orbit, or buried somewhere, the gate network was still down. Which was why I hadn't set a course for a world with a gate that I knew the location of for the test flight. Thankfully we had other options.

"All we need is a door and I can access the Cosmic Warehouse, from there we can get to the Vehicle Bay...".

Seven stopped me there.

"That would be unwise" she advised "the alien warship could still be in orbit and while we did upgrade your Kodiak shuttle with Starfleet technology I do not believe it would fair well against the aliens. And given its slow speed it would take months to return to Atlantis".

I quickly came up with a new plan.

"Fine so we go through the Vehicle Bay and into the Space Dock" I said next "We can take the Wraith cruiser... ".

Again Seven didn't allow me to finish.

"I have not had time to modify the hyperdrive on the cruiser and by the time I was able to modify it, your Aurora class ship would have had ample chance to make it to this planet" Seven told me "And before you mention the communications system on board the cruiser, the same issues applies".

She was right.

"Well, the others will soon realize what happened" I said to the sexy cyborg "and eventually they will find us even if we can't contact them".

Waiting around to be saved wasn't really my style.

"If we wish to rejoin the others we should remain near the shuttle and attempt to repair or construct a subspace radio" Seven was now saying "The alien ship may remain in orbit and we should warn our comrades that they may be flying into danger".

This time it was me who pointed out the flaws in her plan. Although she didn't really need me to as the alien shuttlecraft heading our way made it clear.

"They may want to salvage what's left of the runabout" I mused "I would".

The runabout was cutting edge Starfleet technology that we'd started improving with Ancient technology. Also it contained all our long range communications equipment.

"Or they may be looking for survivors so they can torture us for information" Seven suggested.

With my enhanced mind I quickly came up with a short term plan. This was a human world and so we might be hide among the natives and escape detection by the aliens.

"I glimpsed a road as we were crashing" I said while pointing off into the woods "It's this way".

We started out into the woods leaving the shuttle behind. There was no time to salvage anything from or booby trap it.

(Line Break)

 **Unknown Planet. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Seven spotted them first, having detected them with her tricorder, she always carried one on her person, and in order to avoid being seen she and I hid behind some trees. When the life signs got closer it was clear that they were humans, and not the hostile aliens who might be chasing us even now.

There were six men walking ahead of six women. The couples varied from teens to middle aged. The men wore turbans, loose fitting shirts and wide trousers held up by a sash. Each man wore a dagger on his bet and carried a spear.

Clearly they were not an advanced culture, at least in terms of technology. I'd say that they were at the same level as one of Classical Mediterranean civilizations rather than medieval Europe, however I'd have to see more of their society before I could be sure of that.

The women wore low-cut undergarments, that showed off quite a bit of their breasts and long skirts with fine embroidery. Two of the women led pack animals, which to me looked like some kind of horse-camel hybrid.

Judging by their activity I'd say that they were about to set up camp, and that they were a merchant caravan loaded up with goods, which might mean that they were heading to a major settlement. More people meant bigger crowds to get lost in.

"You know it might not be such a bad idea to try to blend in with the locals" I said to Seven "If the aliens are looking for us they'll focus anyone who looks out of place but shouldn't care about the natives".

Okay so that was guess, we knew so little about the aliens that we couldn't know what they'd do, however given that the humans who lived here hadn't been wiped out by the aliens it seemed possibly that they were hostile towards races that had advanced technology.

"They may be able to detect our scans so I will not be able to use the tricorder as much as I would like" Seven mused "As such it should be hidden, and we may as well disguise ourselves. It will not prevent our companions from locating us".

That wouldn't be much of an issue because our ship had very advanced sensors, so even if I kept my omni-tool off, which I was doing in case it could be tracked by the aliens, the ship should still be able to detect us. Hopefully the aliens didn't have sensors as sophisticated as ours. Although if they did, then they should have found us by now since they had aircraft in the area.

"I'll cloak myself, go down there and steal some clothes" I said to Seven "Wait for me here".

While using the Geth personal cloaking device was a risk, it was designed to stop me from being seen by eyeballs or scanners, so it shouldn't give us away.

(Line Break)

 **Unknown Planet. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Seven look with distaste at the bodice which made up part of the outfit I'd stolen for her.

"It serves no purpose. And it appears uncomfortable" she commented.

Thinking fast I tried to put a positive spin on things.

"It will look very flattering I'm sure" I said.

Seven studied what she held.

"It will emphasize my breasts. Is that what you mean by flattering?" she asked.

I knew enough about women not to answer that question.

"Different cultures have different standards" was all I said.

The women wore jewelry so we would explain Seven's implants that way. To a more primitive culture they should appear decorative, like some sort of body art. Also I'd been able to use the mini-fabractior in my omni-tool to get enough material for hoods and sashes for belts.

"Well we can hide out in the woods for day or two" I said to Seven.

My other companions weren't expecting us back until tomorrow, and it would take them a few hours to reach us if they didn't want to put strain on the engines, then they'd have to scan the whole planet.

Which shouldn't take too long, unless the aliens were still in orbit. If they were then rescue might take longer.

Miranda could fly the ship well enough to fight the aliens, who I hoped would retreat like they had done when one of the Ancient controlled Aurora classes had returned to Atlantis. If they didn't well at worst my companions would die and respawn in about a week inside the Cosmic Warehouse.

Losing the ship would be a much bigger problem, but I highly doubted that would happen as my ship was ZPM powered juggernaut filled with advanced technology. The aliens would be far more likely to try to capture it than destroy and if they did then there was always a chance that it could be recovered.

"No we should attempt to blend in with the native humans" Seven stated.

So Plan A it was then.

(Line Break)

 **Unknown Planet. Pegasus Galaxy.**

As we walked down to the camp the locals were setting up I felt somewhat nervous. I was lacking most of my advanced tech, and while I had my biotic abilities, and my omni-tool, which could be used as a weapon, I felt vulnerable. Having Cameron with me right now would have been a great comfort.

Sadly I'd left her behind, not thinking I needed her for something as simple as a test flight, and she'd been planning to practice her ballet for several hours, I'd suggested it as a hobby back when we'd had free time to spend on Voyager.

When she found about this 'adventure' she going to be upset that she wasn't here to protect me, as that a major part of why she existed, and she'd no crowd me for a while and try to get me to spend more time in my quarters with her. Which could be fun as she was always up for some sex.

"They must have seen us by now" Seven said. "They do not appear threatening"

A couple of humans came out to met us. They were oldest of the group, and now what we were closer I noticed a resemblance between the humans. They might be related, and extended family.

When we got close to shake hands the middle aged man tapped his chest and held his hand open. I copied the gesture as that as normally polite.

"Greetings sir," the man said. "I am Mas. This my slave-wife".

He indicated an attractive woman a few years younger than himself who was standing to the side.

"Could you say that again?" I requested.

I wasn't sure I'd heard that right, but when he repeated his words I was sure that he'd said: slave-wife. My perk should have translated and I did have a universal translator on my person.

"You know our language, but your accent is strange" Mas commented.

Hopefully they didn't mind travellers on this planet.

"We are new to this region" I said.

The man narrowed his eyes when he looked at Seven, who was attempting to be seen as little as possible under the hood she wore. I was surprised that any man would look at face given how huge her breasts looked in the outfit she currently wore.

"Yes" said the man "From far away indeed. Your skin is so pale, and your slave's jewellary is so strange".

So Seven's borg had implants passed inspection, as hoped they were seen as mere decoration. As for our clothes, any oddness noted by the way we wore them and the lack of matching colours would hopefully be dismissed because they thought we were foreigners.

"Where are your beasts and why do you carry no supplies?" the local human asked.

I'd guessed that this question would be asked,

"We were attacked on the road" I told Mas "Luckly we escaped. Are you heading to a nearby city?".

The man nodded.

"Travel with us for you and your slaves safety" he offered.

Hopefully if the aliens did see us we should blend in with the group.

"Thank you" I told Mas.

(Line Break)

 **Unknown Planet. Pegasus Galaxy**

Seven approached where I was sitting off by myself a small distance away from the camp.

"Gothic" she said.

I patted the ground next to me and she sat down.

"Quite a day" I remarked.

I'd not expected a lot of what happened since I got up this morning, but somehow being shot down by unknown aggressive aliens and crashing on an alien planet, seemed dull compared when compared to what I had discovered on this world.

"This planet is a little Gorean" I said to Seven, when it was clear that she wasn't going to speak "Do you know what that means?".

To my surprise she did.

"Gor is a world used as the setting for an extended series of novels written by author and philosophy professor John Norman. The books were inspired by the _Barsoom_ series and is known for its content, which is a combination of philosophy, erotica and science fantasy. The series is also known for its repeated depiction of sexual fantasies involving men abducting and sexually brutalizing women, who grow to enjoy their submissive state" she told me "during your time the books inspired a Gorean subculture among some humans as well as two movies".

Well that made explanations simpler.

"How do you know all that?" I wondered.

I somehow didn't think the Borg Collective would have bothered to save that information when they acquired knowledge of humanity.

"Before selecting this universe as the destination for the Jump I carefully studied several hundred other options that were available, including one based upon John Norman's work" Seven let me know "I dismissed that Jump early on due to primitiveness of the humans".

I'd never even known that there was a Gor Jump. I'd never thought to look despite my fondness for submissive females. Perhaps I should consider taking a Jump there for some R&R. After all I'd been through I deserved it.

Then again I really should learn some magic for when I got my planeswalker spark and there some magic settings that would be down right peaceful compared to what I'd been through so far.

"Gothic I have been speaking with the females" Seven told me next "I believe that you were correct to chose these people to blend in with. These are fine upstanding men by the standards of the people of this world, and the women do not consider themselves slaves but rather wives.

Well women being treated as second class citizens wasn't uncommon in human societies. Even in my day.

"Have you discover anything of value?" Seven asked.

Oh lots.

"Yes" I told her "I couldn't ask too many questions without exposing them to fact that I'm from much further away than they think, but I learned a lot by listening".

While being foreign would excuse my ignorance of many things, they would wonder how it was I spoke their language and yet knew nothing of their customs or history. These weren't total savages after all, nor were they stupid.

"The humans here aren't so different from the Romans, or the Ancient Greeks, civilization is, as far as I can tell, made up of city-states that trade and sometimes war with each other" I informed Seven "I heard no mention of anything like the Stargate, or the Wraith, so it seems as if they are cut off from the rest of the galaxy".

It was possible that this planet hadn't been culled for hundreds of years and while stories of that time could survive they might not be commonly spoken about, hence why I hadn't heard them. That might chance later as people tended to tell more scary tales at night around the campfire.

"All women are owned by the men, most men only have a slave-wife, but some have many slaves, daughters are sold once they come of age" I said next "Near as I can tell it's always been that way, but its not religious, they worship the Ancestors, as in the Ancients, only they don't actually know anything about them".

I figured we'd learn more once we made it to the city.

"For now we just need to keep our heads down and mouths shut" I said to Seven.

Hopefully she'd follow my lead on this.

(Line Break)

 **Unknown Planet. Pegasus Galaxy**

The away team led by Miranda wasn't much of an away team as only Cameron went with her. Before leaving they replicated simple clothes that were compatible with this level of culture and beamed down where they wouldn't be seen.

If they'd taken the time to study the culture they would have known that women weren't allowed to roam around the city without a man escorting them. Because of this the two women drew a lot of attention very quickly.

About thirty seconds after beaming down they were captured, Cameron allowed herself to be taken captive since Gothic had ordered not to kill anyone who wasn't a direct threat, and she could easily escape the bindings used to hold her. Miranda decided that she didn't want to be jabbed by pointy spears, even if they were bronze, and figured she'd just call the ship and get beamed out once they'd been locked up.

In retrospect it would have been wiser to beam Seven and Gothic up to the ship, but Miranda hadn't wanted to beam them out in front of the locals who might not be aware of the existence of other civilizations on other plants or advanced technology.

The two women were soon dragged before the leader of the city, and to their surprise they found Gothic sitting on the throne.

"I was wondering when you'd turn up" said the Jumper.

Needless to say the newly formed royal court was somewhat taken aback by the fact that their new king somehow knew these intruders.

"Who are these slaves, my lord?" the man called Mas asked quietly.

"Well mine I guess" Gothic said "they are from my land, sort of".

The truth was much more complex than that.

"The slaves don't know how to act. I see why you left your homeland" Mas commented.

Yesterday he'd been the head of some merchant caravan, now he was royal advisier, and he'd adjusted well. He very much enjoyed the wealth, power and the big hat that came with his new job.

"Slaves?" asked Miranda.

Cameron had a different question.

"Why is Seven of Nine chained to your command chair?" she asked.

This was going to take some explaining.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"So any sign of the aliens?" I asked as made our way to the bridge.

Miranda shook her head.

"No sign of the runabout either. I think they took it and left" she said.

Most likely they'd taken it to their home planet or a base of operations for study.

"Something on your mind?" I asked.

Miranda looked annoyed.

"Two days" said Miranda "less than that, and in that time you took over an entire city-state!".

To be fair even for us, that was odd.

"I didn't intend to" I told Miss Lawson "But when we got to the city I found out the ruler was using Ancient tech to enforce his will upon the people"

Much like the Lord Protector had with that half buried city-ship, but in this case the tech used came from one of a few Ancient Outposts. Still the rulers had enough drones and control chairs to protect their people. I did wondered why the rulers hadn't blown each other up with drones long ago. Perhaps there was some sort of failsafe left in place by the Ancients to prevent it.

I had no idea how that had evolved into a somewhat Gorean themed world, although I guessed it might have something to do with the rulers being prevetered old men.

"The ruler of that city-state tried to take Seven from me so I used my biotic abilities and they started worshipping me as a god-king" I explained.

Which had been amusing.

"We should let the Ancients know about these outposts" Tali advised "They might want to shut them down".

Atlantis could handle it. I had other things to do.

"Everything else was just me having some fun" I said to the group as I sat in my command chair "Seven and I learned a lot about an interesting human culture".

The cyborg gave me a look.

"You are correct, Gothic" Seven said "I learned a great deal about myself. And a great deal about you".

I requested that she explain that.

"Human sexuality can be quite complex" was what she said next.

"What's that mean?" I asked.

Seven smiled.

"I discovered that I enjoyed being your slave" she said.

Everyone just stared at her.


	17. Chapter 17

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis**

 **Part 17**

 **Taranis. Pegasus Galaxy**

This planet was a former colony of the Lanteans, as evidenced by the outpost left behind, which had a dialing device like the one used in Atlantis, and it possessed a shield which was being powered by geothermal energy, which was far too advanced to have been made by the local humans.

I knew this because the natives had added their own touches to the place, it quickly became clear that while they were much more advanced that other humans in this galaxy, they weren't sophisticated enough to have built any a geothermal power plant. Which wasn't to say that they were primitive, just no advanced enough to care for this outpost.

During the War with the Wraith, the outpost on Taranis served as a drydock for the Ancient fleet, with one Aurora-class warship, the Hippaforalkus, being left behind after the Lanteans fled back to Earth. Yet again proving that the Ancients were terrible at cleaning up after themselves.

Taranis was currently populated by humans, who at some point in their history began to study the Lantean technology left behind, and even with their limited understanding they were able to us the shield to protect themselves from the Wraith. For some reason the Wraith didn't decide to commit the resources needed to destroy the outpost.

In the show the shield's over use of geothermal energy caused the dormant super volcano the base was in to become active. The Atlantis expedition came to Taranis, and helped most of the people escape, but the Stargate was destroyed, and a massive dust cloud emerged from the volcano, rendering the planet uninhabitable for several centuries.

As of yet that happened as by dumb luck the Taranis were discovered by my group sooner than the Atlantis expedition due to having been running a long range scan. We'd picked up elevated energy readings coming from this planet and had found this outpost. We'd diverted course with no real evidence to suggest we'd find something as important as this place.

We'd also scanned the Ancient vessel, and even from orbit we'd able to download some of its logs. According to the record, around 10,000 years ago, the Hippaforalkus suffered damage from battling the Wraith, and was berthed in a subterranean hangar on Taranis.

It was never fully repaired, however, and remained in the hangar after the Ancient's outpost on Taranis was evacuated near the conclusion of the Lantean-Wraith war.

Thousands of years later, the native Taranians discovered the ship but they lacked the scientific knowledge to repair it or the Ancient Technology Activation gene to operate it.

We transported down to the planet Taranis the day after we first made contact, and while they weren't yet having problems with their shield, they were signs of future issues. Even I could tell that I was no scientist. The mild tremor that started mere seconds after we beamed down into the outpost was a bit clue.

"Hello I'm Captain Gothic" I said as I introduced my away team "This is my science officer Seven of Nine, my escort Cameron, and my engineer Tali'Zorah".

As normal I'd left Miranda on board the ship as it wasn't a good idea to leave it unmanned.

"My name is Chancellor Lycus" said the older male as he indicated the very attractive female beside him "and this is our chief scientist Norina".

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," I greeted.

"Are you going to be the one to repair our shields," asked Norina.

She sounded very eager.

"Seven of Nine and Tali'Zorah will do what they can, if you wouldn't mind showing them to the control centre" I requested.

While we had gotten here before the super volcano started going off there might not be much we could do about it. Maybe the Ancients or the Asgard had some sort of technology that could handle this situation, but it was beyond my team's capabilities.

"Yes of course," Norina replied before going off with my science officer and chief engineer.

Once the ladies were gone Cameron and I were left alone with the Chancellor.

"Would you like a tour of the facility," asked Lycus.

There was something I wanted to see.

"Our scans show that you have an Ancestor ship docked in the lower levels" I told the leader of this world "The Ancestors have returned to Atlantis, and they may wish to reclaim the ship".

It was there's and I had no need of it. Even I could take it I had nowhere to put it and I didn't have a crew for it.

"Yes, yes of course," agreed the Chancellor

Soon he was leading the rest of my team towards the main hangar, and noted that he was avoiding any passageways that collapsed during the tremors that routinely shook the outpost in recent times. This was different than in the show, I didn't think the place had looked so bad in the canon timeline.

"Will the Ancestor claim their ship soon?" asked Lycus.

Given that they didn't really have the numbers to crew it they might not. However they may wish to have the ship dismantled so it couldn't be misused. I was somewhat worried that Tauri might discover the vessel, and come to take it, I was sure they'd find away to claim the vessel. Best that they never knew it was here,

"I can't say" I told the Chancellor "But if you'll allow my people to inspect the vessel and ensure that it's been taken care of I can promise a reward".

Now that got the man excited, however he kept himself under control.

"Reward?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Of course the Ancestors wouldn't take back their ship and leave you nothing in return, not after all the generations your people have safeguarded it" I promised "What would you like? Gold, jewels, weapons?".

(Line Break)

 **Taranis. Pegasus Galaxy.**

After giving the Ancient warship a quick looking over I returned to the outposts control room to see how the work was progressing. At this point they were still running diagnostics.

While they did that I went over to a panel that was dormant and brought it online. Which got Norina's attention very quickly.

"How did you do that?" she wished to know.

"The Ancestors safe guarded most of their technology using a special gene, something that is their DNA, its like a key" I explained "Some humans have this key because some of the Ancestors had children with humans. The key can be passed on children. I have that gene and I can give it to people".

Now she was smiling at me.

"Are you a scientist as well?" she asked.

That was an interesting question.

"I have some understand of advanced technology" I informed the woman.

She moved closer.

"I am sure I can learn a great deal from you Gothic. Perhaps I could study under you," suggested Norina.

Her tone of voice let me know that she intended to be under me in more ways than one. I didn't understand her attraction to me. I could only guess that she mistakenly believed I was an Ancestor, and had become something akin to starstruck.

Or maybe it was just perks and body mods combined with how impressed she was by my ability to control Ancient tech.

"I'm sure there are a few things I can teach you, in fact we begin today if you like" I said to the woman "Of course if you really want to study and understand Ancient technology you'd be better off joining my crew. A few months on board my vessel and your understanding of technology will be greatly expanded".

To aid in that I could give her the gene and 'evolve' her mind just enough that learning how Ancient tech working became easier. That would be a good payment for a few months spent as part of my crew. Assuming she could find ways to make herself useful.

"Good, now let's see what is going on here," I muttered as I began reading the systems before me "We should check the power levels".

The level of energy being drawn upon had rapidly increased rather recently.

"You activated the shield, and put in on full about a year ago," I stated more than asked.

"Yes when the outposts' long range sensors detected the increase in Wraith activity. The Chancellor ordered it immediately. Is that a problem," Norina asked in concern.

Well that didn't explain why the power requirements for the shield had jumped up last just days ago, before going down again. As for the volcano issue. I could explain that once I had more information.

"What happened a few days ago?" I asked "Did something happen to the outpost".

Norina seemed surprised that I enquired about this.

"The shield was fired upon by an unknown ship" she told me "It attempted to bring down our shield, but then stopped and left a short time later".

I brought up a hologram of the planet and saw a ship belonging to the aliens who had attacked Atlantis. It had fired upon this outpost.

"One of their smaller craft landed outside the shield and four of the aliens entered the outpost" I was told "Fortunately our people stayed out of their way so only a few of our security personnel were killed, and three of the aliens were trapped under debris during a quake. Their craft left without the remaining alien trying to recover them".

The aliens must have realised that this outpost would be gone in a matter of weeks so had decided to leave it alone. I didn't know why they'd sent a team here, and I didn't think I ever would. Their actions were odd to me.

"Did you recover their bodies or any of their technology?" I asked.

It was an effort to hide how eager I sounded. But I think the Chancellor, who had joined our conversation picked up on it.

"Yes" said the Chancellor "Why do you wish to know?".

In truth I had a few reasons, mostly they involved wanting to study the alien remains and technology much like X-Com would, so that we could combat the alien menace. We knew so little about these aliens and that lack of information left us a great disadvantage.

"Chancellor I would like to buy anything you recovered from those aliens, bodies, weapons, armour, anything" I told the leader of this world "I'll pay any price you wish".

I was impressed by how quickly the man recovered from that bit of news and how well he was able to remain focused. Perhaps I should not have let him know how badly I wanted those samples, but it was too important not to give into any demands he had.

"First we must repair the shield" he insisted "Then we can discuss trade".

I liked that he saw to his people's safety over the chance to acquire riches.

"Well here's the bad news" I said "It won't happen immediately, but in a few weeks this planet will cease to be capable of supporting life"

I then proceeded to explain that the outpost was built on a super volcano in order to make use of the abundant geothermal energy to power the shield. The system was not designed to be used at full power for a year straight.

Because it had been that meant the pressure in the magma chamber below had increased enough that the volcano would soon blow; a forty mile wide volcano which would erupt and throw up a dust cloud which would blot out the sun.

Had the aliens not attack the volcano wouldn't have erupted for a few months, but the aliens had destabilised things even more.

"What volcano?" Lycus demanded to know "I see no volcano".

That's because he was standing in it.

"I think it will easier to see from orbit" I said.

With that I ordered Miranda to beam us up to the ship.

(Line Break)

 **Taranis. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"Then we must soon begin evacuation…but where will we go," wondered the Chancellor "the ring of the Ancestors hasn't worked for months".

In canon the Chancellor would have been suspicious of Elizabeth Weir's motives. Being told the planet would no longer support life right after disclosing the existence of the Aurora class ship, later renamed the Orion, could make a leader suspicious like that. But that wasn't a concern here since he'd seen that I had the means to simply take what I wanted.

Plus he'd seen that I had my own ship, and he'd seen the outpost from orbit. Once he had the idea of it being in a massive volcano wasn't so odd.

Luckily we had weeks before the planet was rendered uninhabitable. It would have been more, however the unknown aliens had taxed the shields when firing on the outpost, which accelerated the problem.

"There are plenty of planets we can set you up on in the galaxy, even if you want a world to yourselves that's possible" I told the man as he sat down behind his desk "Or even a different galaxy if you wish. My ship has the ability to supply you a lot of resources that can help you rebuild".

I had more to say.

"As for the evacuation" I said next "Well you have weeks, so I suggest you tell your people to pack up what they can and prepare for a journey. We should be able to move all your people and a lot of your property within in the next weeks" I said.

Norina then asked the Chancellor if she could join my crew for a time so as to get a chance to study our advanced technology.

"Of course," agreed Lycus immediately "You should leave as soon as you can, and I hope you return with knowledge to share with your people".

This was Norina requested my aid in moving her stuff to my ship. Which involved going to her quarters. As soon as we were behind closed doors the mood changed.

"Gothic perhaps I could learn more than just science from you," Norina asked nervously as she unzipped the front of her outfit.

Some time was spent as I admired her form as she slipped off her clothes before me to reveal a firm body which looked very nice indeed.

"I would like that very much," I answered with a grin while slipping my own clothes off.

This wasn't unexpected for me, but I hadn't thought she'd move this quickly. Still I wasn't going to refuse an offer of sex from an attractive woman.

(Line Break)

 **Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.**

While the Ancients had taken over running of the city, they had given over some room to the Tauri expedition, which was being allowed to stay, only in a much reduced capacity. Despite this they were still attempting to explore the Pegasus galaxy and to recover advanced technology for Earth's use. Only it wasn't going so well.

"So what do we know?" Weir asked to Shepard.

John Shepard had just returned from a mission which involved taking the Earthship Odyssey to a world which had once been inhabited by the Ancients.

"When we got there we saw one of those big O'Neill ships" Shepard reported "It called us up and told us to leave, which we did, after scanning the planet as much as we could".

The Asgard seemed to have a number of operations going on in this galaxy and no one from Earth had much of an idea of what was going on. The Asgard were being tight lipped about everything.

"And what did you find?" Weir asked.

This time Mckay spoke

"Nothing much, I analyzed the data, but the only thing that we know for sure is that the destroyed Wraith ships in orbit are old, as in war with Ancients old, so it wasn't the Asgard who kicked the crap out of them".

Weir, who had very recently been sent back to the city-ship known as Atlantis by the IOA, found this very odd.

"As far as we know the Asgard have never show any interest in this galaxy, but now it seems as if they were everywhere" Weir mused "They must be working with the Ancients to recover as much of the technology they left behind as possible".

Which they couldn't really argue against as it did belong to the Ancients.

"Mckay, did you find anything else on the database?" Weir wondered.

At least they had been allowed limited access to the Ancient database.

"Not much, only that it was an outpost were research was being done and…"

Before he could continue the doors of the room opened to allow Colonel Caldwell to enter.

"How was your trip?" enquired Weir.

Since the Tauri couldn't use Atlantis as a base of operations while exploring the galaxy, it was either the Daedalus or the Odyssey doing all the work. Mostly this involved the Daedalus shipping supplies from Earth to the Pegasus galaxy for the Tauri base in this galaxy, which wasn't fully up and running yet. Since the gates were still shut down there was little point having a base from which to explore.

"Boring as always, I couldn't bring everything from the list of supplies, but I brought the majority" he said before taking a seat. "I did manage to talk to the IOA, who finally got an answer from the Asgard, they told me that the Asgard will be dealing with some technology too advanced for us".

This news was not taken well.

"That's stupid! There's nothing too advance for us, at least once we have studied it" Mckay said.

In this time line he hadn't blown up a solar system.

"And what's IOA's opinion about all this?" Weir wondered.

She was worried that soon they'd all be recalled to Earth, and that their efforts in this galaxy would be for nought.

"They're divided on this" Caldwell said "Some countries want us to look for more technology in this galaxy before the Asgard find it, while others agree that there is some technology that is too advance for us, and well, they are pretty happy with what we already have, so they don't see the need to venture to other galaxies. General O'Neill at Stargate Command pointed out there is still a lot of our own galaxy left to explore, and that the money could be better spent building more of our new fighters and upgrading our ships".

Weir frowned and intertwined her fingers as she lamented the fact that her expedition really wasn't going well.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

My ship had returned to orbiting Atlantis as the city-ship needed protection and I had no desire to see the last of the Ancients on this plane of existence be slaughtered, not when I'd gone to all that trouble to recover them.

Not long after my ship entered orbit Thor called ahead to let me know that he would be beaming on board, which he did a few seconds later. Thankfully I was fully dressed and on the bridge at this point.

"We have located the Alterran outpost with a human population living nearby" Thor said, getting right down to business "As you informed us overuse of the outpost's energy source created a chain reaction that will end with the eruption of a supervolcano"

No surprises there, but it had seemed wise to get a second opinion just in case. I'd feel really stupid if we evacuated the planet and then found out the super volcano could be made dormant again with the use of some fancy Ancient or Asgard tech.

"Is there something that you can do to help them?" I asked.

While I had a plan in place the Asgard were a race that could get shit done very quickly and with good results.

"It has already be done" Thor informed me "It seems that the super volcano will erupt before we can stop it, so the population was evacuated to a planet in the Ida galaxy, in exchange they offered us the ship and the outpost".

Guess I must been more convincing about the dangers than I'd thought.

"The Atlantis Council has decided to... I believe the human term to be 'stripping for parts', the Ancients have taken over the outpost and are taking what they can before the volcano explodes" Thor told me "I am sure they would welcome your aid in that work and grant you some time to study the outpost if you wish".

That was smart as while Atlantis had to have some industrial capacity that didn't mean they knew how to use it as the remaining Ancients were the crew of warships not scientists and engineers. Merlin was a scientist, but he was just one man, and he leading the Lateans, so he was a busy person.

As such they would need to get replacement parts from somewhere, and while there was another city-ship in this galaxy that was one most buried and unstable. The outpost would hold together for a few more weeks, that was more than enough time to get the good stuff onto ships.

If time allowed I might take my companions back there, but there was plenty of other Ancient technology to study. Seven had more tech than she knew what do with.

"We will be taking the ship back to our homeworld for study" Thor let me know "This will involve dismantling the craft".

This was when Doctor Keller, who I didn't see much of as she always seemed to be busy working on something down in sickbay, entered the bridge.

"Gothic, I just finished my autopsy of the first alien body we got from the people on Taranis" she informed us.

This was good news as we still knew so little about these aliens, such as where they originated from and if they were ever at war with the Wraith or how they had concealed themselves from them Wraith long enough to progress to the technological level they were currently at.

What little we did know was that they possess a number of powerful ships that don't quite match up to Ancient or Asgard warship, but could surpass those of other races.

In the show this unknown species was encountered in an alternate reality, where they were attacking Atlantis. The alternate _Daedalus_ was able to disable their ship before they jumped to the next reality. However, at least four of those aliens boarded the ship after one of their Fighters crashed with the _Daedalus_ , those encountered were eventually killed.

The _Daedalus_ later returned to the same reality and encountered the ship again, still disabled. The _Daedalus_ had suffered heavy damage from fighting the ship's fighters but was later saved by the Atlantis expedition of that universe who helped destroy the alien fighters using their F-302 fighter-interceptors. It was unknown what happened to the battleship after the _Daedalus_ jumped away but perhaps it was destroyed by the F-302s.

"Well for starters they share a resemblance to the Wraith, mostly the teeth and facial structure, this not just a resemblance" she said "They are very closely related to the Wraith. I'd say that they developed very differently, but have the same origins".

I wasn't that surprised, and while it was hard to tell I didn't think Thor was either. Something about those aliens had made me think they could be an alternate version of the Wraith.

"There also related to humans" the doctor was now saying "More so than the Wraith, they have a functioning digestive system, and no feeding organ on their hands, so they must eat normal food. They do share the Wraith's healing ability to an extent, but I think it would be diminished".

The aliens seemed tough in the show, but that might be because of their armour and cybernetic implants.

"They have some sort of synthetic implant in the left side of their skull" Keller told us next "I cut it out and gave it to Seven for study, there are more implants I can take out, and while I haven't learned that much about their biology just yet they seem to have a weakness to bright lights. I think they might live underground, perhaps that's how they hid from the Wraith".

At this point it seemed as if she had nothing else to say.

"Thank you Doctor" I said "Let me know when you learn more. In the meantime feel free to share what information you have gathered with your people on Atlantis".

The other bodies I'd already handed over to the Asgard and to the Ancients, and at some point I was sure we'd compared notes. I didn't think that the aliens would be a threat to Earth, but just in case they were it would be best to share at least some information about them. I'd also share data with Atlantis, Earth, the Asgard and even the Travellers if I could find them again, on the technology of the aliens, once I had some to share, With this in mind I pressed a button on my chair and contacted Seven of Nine.

"Anything to report on the alien's technology?" I asked.

Seven soon responded.

"I have made some discovers about their hand held weapons" she informed us "These aliens carry a type of grenade that when activated explodes unleashing a great amount of heat. It is some form of plasma grenade. I also have studied one of their pistols. It is similar to the type of disruptor weapons used by the Klingons".

Now that was odd. Most races in this universe either used projectile weapons like Earth guns or some form of plasma weaponry. There were some exceptions to this rule like Wraith stunners and Goa'uld zat guns, but disruptors were something else. I knew that they were effective against organic targets so perhaps they'd been creating as something to use against the Wraith.

"I have no more information at this time" Seven told me.

Then she hung up.

"We'll get back to you with more information on these unknown aliens later" I told Thor.

Without a word he beamed out. People seemed to be a hurry today.


	18. Chapter 18

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 18**

 **Aurora-class Warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

I'd not forgotten about the handful of humans known as Runners, who were hunted by the Wraith for some unknown purpose, although it could be something as simple as entertainment or training.

The reason I'd done nothing about them was that there were only a handful if Runners in the galaxy and I was focused on the fates of entire worlds. Not that they had much to worry about as the Wraith could not chase the Runners anymore since they couldn't use the gates or travel with their ships.

Still I had located one of the Runners on a planet, and as an act of kindness I was going to beam the Runner up to my ship, remove his or her implanet, and settle them on a nice planet somewhere in this universe.

As to why I even cared, well I'd killed a lot of people during my Jumps, and now that I had some free time I was starting to wonder if I was a bad person or not. I had no desire to be a hero, but I didn't want to be a villain either, and I did spend a lot of time manipulating people for my own ends.

So really I wanted to help out the Runners, assuming I could find them all, in order to make myself feel better. It wasn't as if it would cost me anything more than time and a little energy, and I plenty of both.

I walked over to the controls and beamed up the human life sign which was currently on a planet all alone. A moment later I was pleasantly surprised to discover Ronan Dex on my transporter pad

"Where am I?" Ronan demanded to know.

He had trained his energy weapon on me, and while I had my environmental shield on if the particle mangum was set on kill I could be in trouble.

"Calm down. You're among friends," I answered.

Since he didn't take my word on that I waved my hand and snatching his weapon from his grasp in a minor display of biotic ability. I hadn't as of yet developed any measurable mental powers, but my control of biotics seemed even finer than ever.

"You're an Ancestor" the Runner said.

I shook my head. This was an understandable misunderstanding, and he wasn't the first to have made it. The humans in this galaxy knew little of the Ancients other than they'd been very advanced in terms of technology, and that they had strange powers. Ronan had just beamed up onto a starship and then had his weapon removed from his grip by what must seem to be magic. So his mistake was forgiven.

"No" I correct "But I am an ally of the Ancestors, and I'll take you to the city of Atlantis after we get that tracking device removed. Once you've had your surgery we'll get you some new clothes and something to eat".

Keller should be able to do, and while the Wraith had no way of reaching Atlantis there was sense altering them to the fact that it still existed by taking a human they had tagged to that city-ship.

"Thanks, but why are you helping me," Ronan asked.

He seemed to think that no one would help him without having an ulterior motive, and given that he'd spent years running for the Wraith he'd earned the right to be paranoid.

"To tell the truth this isn't a lot of work for me" I admitted "I just happened to pick up the signal from the Wraith tracking device and found that it was coming from a human life sign. And I won't even be the one removing the device, I have a doctor for that".

I decided to be totally honest about what was going on.

"You must have noticed by now that the Wraith aren't chasing you anymore, that's because the Ancestors have returned, and they've used a device which prevents the Wraith from travelling to different planets, and they shut down the gates so that the Wraith can't cull anymore" I explained "So you don't really need my help, if you want I can send you back down to the planet, or you can stay on my ship, get the tracker out, eat some decent food, and see Atlantis before we find somewhere for you to live. You don't have to run any more or fight".

Ronan was a man of few words, but he wasn't dumb, so it didn't take him long to figure out what to do next.

"Thanks for the help. I don't know what else to say," Ronan told me.

He didn't need to say anything else. I was just grateful that he accepted his change in circumstances so easily.

"Oh you don't have to say anything Ronan. I know you are a man of few words. But I have one more gift for you" I said next "Well actually I have a few gifts for you. Most of which are just supplies to help you start a new life".

This would cost me nothing since I'd just replicate some food, clothing, tools, and a few other things for him and put them in a bag.

"It might be some help in the future to know that some of your people survived" I told the Runner "I've heard rumours of people from your world who are still around. Only a few, but it's something".

Best not to mention those that ended up serving the Wraith. It was doubtful that they were still alive. Either the Wraith would have fed on them because of their food shortage or they'd be cut off from their master and die due to lack of medical care during withdrawal.

"Thanks" Ronan said to me "I wish there was something I could do for you in return".

I gave the matter some thought.

"You could tell me how you made that cool sword" I said.

Ronan took the weapon and passed it to me,

"Here.I don't think I'll need it anymore" was all he said.

Nothing was spoken of for a few moments.

"Right then" I said after a while "Follow me to sickbay so we can get that implant out".

Once Ronan was in surgery I'd set a course for next dot on the map. One of them had to be the guy with that short range teleporting device. He was called Kiryk, if I recalled correctly, and he was a Human native to the Pegasus galaxy. He was once captured from his homeworld by the Wraith and made into a runner, much like Ronan.

During his time as a runner, he visited a planet with a technologically advanced race living on it. He was able to trade something for a teleportation device, which gave him an advantage over the Wraith. I was hoping he'd tell me all about that race and where to find them, or at the very least trade me the device for the removal of his tracker and the chance to start a new life somewhere peaceful.

(Line Break)

 **Game World. Pegasus Galaxy.**

After finding Kiryk, removing his tracker, getting the device off him, and being able to get the gate address of him because he claimed he couldn't remember it, my ship and its new guests, were heading back to Atlantis for our turn at guard duty. Along the way Seven of Nine detected something on the long range sensors and we came in for a closer look.

My team and I transported down to the outskirts of the nearest village on the world we'd never been too before. Despite that I knew exactly what this world was going to be like because of the recognisable network of satellites in orbit.

In the canon timeline this planet was discovered by Major Lorne's team. It was found to be the real life setting to a game Rodney Mckay and John Sheppard were playing back on Atlantis.

As it turned out they were actually influencing the two major countries of this planet. In this universe they started playing the game, but had been forced to stop when they left Atlantis. I knew that now both Sheppard and Mckay were back in the city-ship, as part of the Tauri delegation, they might start playing again, and I wanted to make sure things didn't get of hand here like they did in the show.

I knew this was Rodney's nation as he'd plastered his face everywhere and all the women had short blonde hair.

"Hello I am Nola," greeted an attractive blonde who approached us.

"I am Gothic" I told the woman "With me are Cameron and Miranda Lawson".

It was a testament to how accepting of other humans the people of this galaxy, at least for the most part, that we weren't met with any hostility despite how odd we must look. Miranda, who I hadn't left in command of the ship for a change as Seven wanted to stay on board and study the satellites, and I wore our heavily modified versions of Vanir environmental suits. Cameron was dressed in clothing much more suited to to hanging with friends on late 20th and early 21st century Earth. We could not have looked more out of place without some sort of neon signs.

"Welcome to Geldar," greeted Nola as she led us to what turned out to be some sort of town hall "I assume you came to talk to the Oracle".

Indeed we had, but only I had known this.

"The Oracle," asked Miranda.

That would be the Ancient computer device which stood in the center of this room.

"The Oracle is a wise and omnipotent deity. Thousands of years ago he gave our ancestors life. He instructed them how to build their society, how to live their lives. His guidance was revered by all. Then one day without warning the Oracle ceased all communications," Nola explained.

No surprise there.

"The war with the wraith," I said to Miranda

We weren't wearing our helmets so I'd been forced to speak softly to Miss Lawson, soft enough that no one else would hear. Well Cameron would as she stuck close and had very good hearing.

"Our people were puzzled by this but they continued to adhere to his instructions, living their lives according to his teachings which they passed down from generation to generation," continued Nola.

The whole thing was like that Civilization game, which I'd always been awesome at, only in this case there were real beings affected by the choices the people playing the game made.

"Did you ever have any trouble with the Wraith," questioned Miranda.

"Yes, they've come periodically, culled our people, and destroyed our villages" we were told "However its been some time since they have been here".

Given that the Wraith didn't tolerate any advanced technology other than their own it seemed odd that they had blasted the satellites. Sure they would have been dormant until recently, but still I found that odd.

"Those who survived rebuilt but only to the level which the Oracle had instructed before he left" the native woman was now saying "We found ourselves stalled in our development, unwilling to push forward without the Oracles' guidance; hoping one day he would return to us".

Again I found these odd. Sure my world had its dark age, but that lasted for mere centuries not thousands of years. You'd think they progress somewhat even without any assistance.

"Recently the Oracle resumed communicating with us, teaching us many new things. He challenged us to think, to push the limit of our scientific endeavors. He changed the name of our country and revealed his likeness to us" we were told "Then again he suddenly stopped, only to start again quite recently. We do not understand why as we did nothing that could have displeased the Oracle".

That had been my fault. Causing the removal of the Atlantis expedition meant that Rodney had stopped by playing the game for a time.

"And you communicate through that," I said as I pointed towards the Lantean style console

The local woman nodded.

"Yes it is through this that we receive our instructions," Nola explained.

"And the Oracle knows when you have carried them out," asked Miranda.

Unlike me she did not know what was going on. Hence all the questions.

"Yes," answered Nola.

"The satellites" I whispered to Miranda "They monitor everything and fed the information the computers at Atlantis over subspace. Must be done over channels that don't get normally used otherwise we'd have picked up the data stream".

This was going to have to be explained to the two nations of this world before they got close to war, and that meant taking even more people to Atlantis so that they could see the truth of things, and have it all explained by the Ancestors, who they would believe.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Once more my mighty vessel was in orbit of the city-ship known as Atlantis, it was important for the remaining Ancients to be guarded, and it did give me some free time which could used to manipulate people's DNA thanks to the use of a certain lab here on my ship.

I fully intended to spend a few days in the machine as soon as I could so that I could be nudged closer to ascension, after this next treatment I should be 'evolved' enough to start gaining super cool mental powers.

The treatment after that should adjust my mind enough that I could take in the knowledge contained within the Ancient Knowledge Repository that was within Merlin's cave. I'd left it there in case I needed it.

I didn't think it contained all of the knowledge a near-ascended being could manage to hold, it might be limited to Merlin's research, but that could benefit me greatly as it would be far less strain on my mind and it would leave me lots of stuff left to learn, and there was little point to life if you had no room to grow.

While the Tok'ra Anise had left my ship to spend time on Atlantis, and was unlikely to return, the human woman called Norina seemed to be settling in well I noticed and Seven of Nine had quickly take the scientist under her wing.

Which was interesting because Seven wasn't the most sociable of people and could be hard to work with. Not because she was bad person, it was just that she'd spent most of her life a borg drone.

Plus recently Seven had discovered that she was at least somewhat into submission and bondage, and had taken to wearing a bodysuit that somehow fitted to her curves even more than the others, and she'd started wearing some sort of collar.

Currently the two women were within one of the many labs we had on board this ship, and when Norina noticed that I had entered the room she rushed over to talk to me.

"Gothic I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for allowing me to study on board your ship" she said.

Yes she'd been very grateful for the opportunity, and had displayed it a few times with sex. I didn't understand her attraction, and wondered if me becoming a more 'evolved human' somehow made me more appealing to women. Something to think about later.

"I also wanted to ask how I'd be rejoining my people later" she then said.

Of course she must have heard about them moving to a planet in the Ida galaxy. I wondered if there were lots of humans in that galaxy and if the ascended Ancients also shielded their existence from the Ori.

"Don't worry my ship can reach that galaxy" I assured the attractive scientist.

I knew that the galaxy Thor called home was called Ida that it was approximately 4 million light years from the Milky Way, and much further than that from the Pegasus Galaxy. Without taxing the engines the trip there would take about two months from Pegasus if we stopped by Earth on the way, but little more than a week if we drew upon the ZPM and taxed the engines. An exact ETA was impossible to guess so that those times might not be right.

"If my ship doesn't have time to make the trip I'll ask the Asgard to take you" I told the woman "They could have you there in no time at all".

Norina thanked me again, and went back to her studies.

(Line Break)

 **Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Since there was no rush to 'evolve' me further, and because there were several parties interested in taking the time to study my 'evolution' I'd decided to use my increased intelligence in a productive way that wouldn't step on anyone's toes.

My companions and crew all that their own fields of interest. Seven was the scientist, who was currently working on lots of projects, Tali was the engineer, the one who did most of the work when it came to actually using the technology we spent so much time gathering, Cameron was my bodyguard, and Miranda handled the day to day running of things.

As for the crew, well I could easily replace Jennifer Keller with an EMH (emergency medical hologram) if I so wished I had a program for an early version of the Doctor's program in storage and had forgotten about it, but I hoped to keep Keller as she was cute. As for the others they came and went as they desired.

I was the commander, the team leader, but there was nothing for the team to do right now so I'd begun a project of my own. One that involved gathering a lot of information about the history of this universe.

This information was required as, on a whim more than anything else, I'd decided to write a book which contained the truth. A Book of Origin, if you will, that did actually tell people of their true origins, and could even help guide people on the path to ascension.

So far I'd included a lot of information about how the first humans evolved in far off galaxy. These people, who were the first evolution of humanity, who all lived together as one society and they were on an 'evolutionary' path to Ascension.

A split then occurred among the first humans in this universe, dividing them into two factions: the Ancients (who back then were called the Alterrans), who were secular and science-oriented, and the Ori, who became more religious. It was unknown what they worshipped or why.

The Alterrans had been a people at an advanced stage of Human evolution, or Humans are a primitive form of Alterrans, depending on how you looked at the situation. Both species share the same basic appearance, but there the similarities end. Alterans are what present day Human culture would think of as advanced aliens, and what past Human culture would refer to as 'gods'.

Eventually, the Ori became so extreme in their beliefs that they tried to wipe out the Alterans. Though they considered using their knowledge to defend themselves, that would have involved messing with people's minds on a massive scale using a device called The Ark of Truth, so instead they built a ship and left their galaxy, while the Ori remained behind.

The Alterra traveled across space to eventually settle in the galaxy of Avalona (aka the Milky Way) fleeing persecution at the hands of their brethren, the Ori rather than sticking up for themselves like an entire race of school aged nerds. These exiles eventually evolved into one of the most powerful races ever to inhabit the stars.

The Alterrans were almost totally wiped out by a plague several million years ago, which was possibly the work of the Ori, but life was reseeded in the Milky Way using the device on Dakara, this included Earth and was what led to raise of humanity. It was unknown if the Alterrans intended to create humans on Earth or not.

Merlin might know as he still had some knowledge Ascended beings had, and hopefully the Alterrans had created humans on purpose otherwise many people would be disappointed when they found out that humanity in the Milky Way had just been the result of the Ancients doing some advanced terraforming.

While the remaining Ancients left the Milky Way some had already began ascending according to historical records, and while the records didn't say much about this it was known for a fact that some of the Alterrans had near-ascended abilities. I knew this to be true as an Alterran who remained behind in some form of stasis, had healing abilities.

This might explain why the Ancients who ascended later had to follow the non-interference rule right from the start and didn't use their powers to clean up after themselves, and why they didn't use their powers to wipe out the Wraith, and then back off to allow humans to develop without interference. They would have been forced to follow the rules by those who had ascended so long ago.

One of the more amazing things I'd recently found out was the Lanteans were created by the Alterrans as successors because there were not enough Aterrans left alive after the plague to keep the species going. Which was an issue the remaining Lanteans were dealing with right now.

As the remaining Alterrans, who were all living in Atlantis, which had moved to the Pegasus Galaxy, either died out or ascended, the city and control of the Pegasus galaxy was handed over the Lanteans, who were the chosen successors of the Alterrans.

While the Lanteans were not the Alterrans, they were advanced enough to do things such as establish a stargate network, and seed new life in the Pegasus galaxy, including more primitive versions of the species, humans basically, and help them prosper. This was done on the orders of the last Alterrans.

Like some of the Asurans the Lanteans wanted to match their creators, so achieving ascension became a primary objective for them. So much so, in fact, that they developed a pacifistic attitude that greatly hindered them in their war against the Wraith.

It also explained why the Lanteans never built anything that surpassed Atlantis, they were merely following in the footsteps of their creators and perhaps didn't believe they could surpass them. They might have even been created by Alterrans with limits so that Lanteans couldn't surpass the Alterrans, just like how the Lantenas had built limits into the Asurans.

After their desperate departure from Atlantis 10,000 years ago, the Ancients returned to Earth. Upon their return, the Ancients found Humans in the hunter-gatherer stage of evolution.

The Ancients were unable to restart their empire, so some lived and even bred with the native humans. They also played a role in creating later future civilizations, such as Rome, while others went into isolation and ascended.

Lanteans, or the Ancestors as they were call in this galaxy, had returned to Atlantis, thanks to myself and the Asgard, who I planned to devote a chapter to in my book because of how some of the Asgard influenced human cultures in the Milky Way. I might even mention the Wraith as they were in a sense part human.

While the history of humanity part of the book was somewhat simple to put together, it was the future of the species that had me stumped. For many ascension was the goal, I was more interested in the journey, but I wasn't writing this book for me.

Perhaps I would venture to the cloister, which was a safe haven somewhere in this galaxy for humans who wanted to attempt to ascend, time ran much more quickly within the cloister, so I spent months there learning all about the spiritual side of ascension, and for the rest of the team only mere hours would pass.

Getting out of the cloister shouldn't be an issue was either the locals would ascend and let me out, or I could just use a door to get to the Cosmic Warehouse and then go to the Space Dock and have my Aurora-class there waiting for me.

There was a polite cough from somewhere behind me and I turned away from the terminal I'd been using to come face to face with Doctor Daniel Jackson. I'd met him before, but only briefly as when I'd spent time on Earth I'd been doing technical stuff and hadn't had any time for the kind of stuff Doctor Jackson did.

"Aren't you part of the team dealing with the humans from that game planet?" I asked.

I'd heard that the Tauri were handling that issue as it was there fault for messing with the game in the first place.

"Doctor Weir can handle it" said Doctor Jackson "I'm looking for something in important, and I want your help".

Now he had my attention.

"I think that there might be a city-ship somewhere on Earth" Jackson told me.

Okay now he really had my attention.


	19. Chapter 19

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 19**

 **Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.**

It took me a few moments to fully process what Daniel Jackson had just said to me. Not because I had a hard imagining a city-ship being on Earth as I'd seen Atlantis land on Earth during the show, and I knew that Atlantis had left Earth millions of years ago, the city-ship had most likely been built on that planet.

The trouble I had was trying to guess what the results would be from the Tauri finding and claiming their own city-ship. Sure they might just study it, and use it to defend their planet, however they might also use its technology to 'protect their interests' which was a nice way of saying that they would want to enforce their will upon others. However that last part really wasn't my concern, as I wouldn't be here in the long run, and should the Ori, or another hostile power turn their sights on the Milky Way galaxy, then Earth might need its very own Atlantis.

"So why you think there's a city-ship on Earth?" I asked Doctor Jackson.

There was no hint of there being one on that planet in the show, as such I was rather curious about this, as well as a little concerned.

"Yes, well it's not mentioned in the database" Jackson told me as he took out a battered notebook "One of the Captains mentioned it. He said it was part of a special project meant to preserve their society should this galaxy fall the Wraith, which it did. Even the ruling council weren't aware of all the details".

This explained why Merlin had never spoke of it. He and I had taken the time to discuss a few things, and I felt sure that he would have taken a few moments to mention that there was a city-ship parked somewhere on Earth.

"Since there's no real record of the city-ship, they have been deleted" Jackson said next "I had to look for all the information I could get on city-ships, and fill in the gaps with other sources of information. And I think I found it".

He showed me a picture, a crude hand drawn one, that showed the main spire of a city ship poking above some tree tops. Most likely in a jungle.

"This drawing was made by my grandfather I'm not sure if he copied it or if it was just described to him, but he claims it's a drawing of El Dorado" Jackson told me.

If it wasn't a city-ship then at the very least this drawing had been made by someone who had seen an Ancient tower done in the Lantean style.

"Originally El Hombre Dorado ("The Golden Man") or El Rey Dorado ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish" Jackson was now saying "That's another story, and over time it became mixed with a legend about a golden city, that is supposedly somewhere in the jungles of South America".

Even I'd heard of the golden city that was suppose to be somewhere in the jungles of South America.

"I think El Dorado might be real because I found a mention of city-ships that were built before the war with the Wraith, and one is golden" Jackson told me "Like most other things Ancient in this galaxy the records show that the Wraith destroyed it, but what if it was sent to Earth when the Ancients realised they couldn't win the war?".

A nice idea, but I could see some flaws with it.

"Wouldn't the remaining Ancients who fled to Earth at the end of the war have gone to this city-ship?" I wondered.

Sure the leaders hadn't possessed all the information about this golden coloured city-ship, but if the point of it was preserve their society then those feeling to Earth should have gone to it rather than having to rough it out on a savage Earth.

"Only if could find it" said Jackson "I think the idea was to gate to El Dorado from Atlantis, but that something went wrong".

Perhaps the Ancients has sent this city-ship on Earth on some sort of auto-pilot, but then something went wrong. Would hardly be the first time the Ancients screwed up one of their plans. Of course that could mean that it was floating in the void between galaxies.

"I think the city might be cloaked" Jackson said "I've read some accounts about explorers, some of whom knew my Grandfather, who claim to have found El Dorado, or knew someone who did, and since they've never been able to take anyone else to the city no one was ever able to prove its existence".

That made some sense to me.

"If this golden city-ship was cloaked, then people could have wandered into the cloaking field, explored a golden city, when they left it vanished from their sight" I mused "and they couldn't find it again because it was deep in the jungle".

Well that answered one of my many questions.

"If this city-ship had three ZPMs it could maintain a cloaking field for that long" I said, thinking out loud "Atlantis held back the ocean for thousands of years compared to that a cloaking field would be nothing".

So it was possible.

"Didn't you ever scan the planet with your Asgard sensors?" I wondered.

Jackson nodded.

"Asgard scanners can't pick up ships hidden by Ancient cloaking devices" he said.

That was a good point, and it made me realise that Jackson must want my help because I had an Ancient ship with Ancient sensors.

"Okay so assuming that their is a city-ship somewhere in the jungles of South America. Then why tell me?" I asked.

I'd guessed that it had to with the scanners and Jackson confirmed it. However that wasn't the only issue.

"Assuming that there is a city-ship somewhere in the jungles of South America then who would claim it?" I asked "Sure it belongs to the Ancients, but what about the South American nations?".

I had a feeling that the American airforce would try to take the city-ship for themselves.

"Well it is cloaked" Jackson reminded "So there's no reason why anyone outside of the teams who will be sent to explore the city and a few leaders, should even know its there".

That was one of the possible outcomes of the discovery that worried me. It wouldn't be as bad as people going to war over it, but if the knowledge was just going to be horded then what was the point of exploring such a wonder?.

Sure I didn't share information so freely, however that was because my knowledge in the wrong hands could be very dangerous. Still I shared such priceless information when it was required of me, as the Asgard well understood.

Then again they already had access to the Ancient outpost on Earth, and that hadn't caused WWIII, so maybe the nations of Earth could share a city-ship.

"Okay so what's in it for me?" was my next question "Scanning the jungles won't be too much trouble, but it will take weeks to reach Earth, and the city-ship is worth... well a lot".

The ZPMs alone were worth more than anything I owned, well other than the ZPM I already had.

"Well that's the other reason why I came to yo" Jackson told me "The SGC has been downsized somewhat since the discovery of Atlantis, but recent events have caused the IOA to transfer a lot of money to ship building".

Yeah I was pretty sure that in the show, Earth had less ships at this point in the timeline, than it did in this reality. Clearly more resources had been spent on ship building in this version of Stargate.

"What does that have to do with me?" I asked.

Daniel took a seat next to me.

"That's why I want you to claim the city, or at the very least find it before anyone else" Jackson said "You can talk to the IOA, to the Pentagon, to the President, and make them share the discovery with the other nations of Earth".

There was no way the American leaders would tolerate any other faction having a base like that on Earth, and that went double for something like a city-ship. The only reason the team going to Atlantis had been international was because they'd been going so far away. And even then the team had mostly been American, or at least its leaders had been.

"But since you'd find the city first you have first grabs on anything you find there" Jackson told me "Maybe they'll have some extra ZPMs".

That would be nice.

"Very well" I decided "My ship will head to Earth as soon as we get the chance".

I still had guard duty here, but that wouldn't last forever, and I still things that I wanted to do in the Milky Way Galaxy.

"Yeah about that" said Jackson "Can I get a lift? I'd like to be there when you find the place. Prove it really does exist".

If Jackson wanted to spend a couple of weeks on my ship travelling between galaxies I had no problem with that.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Between Galaxies.**

I opened my eyes and looked up to see Cameron looking down at me. Once this would have freaked me out, but I'd quickly adapted to having my sexy cyborg bodyguard around.

"So no wake up blowjob, no breakfast in bed?" I asked.

Cameron tilted her head in the way she sometimes did when thinking.

"You instructed me not to wake you up unless it was important" she said.

Well I'd not phrased it that way, and now that I got to wake up my own every single day I did miss the many ways Cameron employed to help me get up. Back then I'd had duties on Voyager, but these days I was much more free to do as I pleased. There was enough Alliance Marine left me in to find this unsettling.

"Anything on the agenda for today?" I asked.

No doubt someone wanted my attention, and while I ran things informally on this ship, sometimes I did have appointments.

"Tali'Zorah wishes to see you" Cam told me "She's finished layering your armour with that special material".

Oh that was good to hear. Seven must have figured out the cloth material of the Kull armour, and Tali must have added a layer of it to the armour we used which was based on what the Vanir once used. I was pleased by this as there was little point going around this universe gathering all that tech if we didn't find ways to profit from it.

"I'll pop by her workshop later on" I said to the cyborg.

While Tali could often be found in the engine room, we were currently on long distance trip in hyperspace, which didn't require much in the way of oversight. As such at times like these Tali liked to tinker in her workshop.

"Anything else?" I asked.

Cameron didn't need to consult a data padd or anything like that as she was a portable computer.

"You need to talk to Daniel Jackson about his experience with ascension for your book" she said next.

I was still writing that book, and I had some stuff I needed to find out about the more spiritual way to ascend since most humans weren't advanced enough in terms of biology to attempt to ascend to a higher plane. I didn't care much for ascension itself, however others would and this was the kind of knowledge all people should have access to. It was a shame that no one on Earth would ever read it, but there were millions if not billions of other humans scattered across the galaxies who could.

"After that is your next treatment in the ascension machine" Cameron told me "Which will take a few days, not counting the tests".

I was being very careful with pushing myself to a state of near-ascension as I didn't want to warp my mind, or end up looking like Prior of the Ori. I was white enough as it was. Plus the Asgard wanted to study the process, and I was happy to help those little grey guys since they did a lot for other people, myself included. At this rate they'd give me one of their Asgard Cores I felt sure of it.

"Good" I said my bodyguard as I began to get dressed "As soon as its safe I want to use Merlin's knowledge downloader".

I'd asked him about that device, and between the warnings, all of which I paid attention, he'd told me that contained information on the Sangraal, and all the steps that led him to the technology, including his work involving accessing other dimensions, in the sense of going out of phase of this one, not the travelling to other versions of this universe. Although perhaps one could led to the other.

While I had this entire universe to explore, I was looking forward to finding out if I could visit alternate dimensions like in the show, if only so I could see how they differed. I imagined that many of alternate versions of the Milky Way were being visited by the Priors of the Ori, but others wouldn't be. Some might still even be under the rule of the Goa'uld.

"Doctor Keller has more information about the hostile aliens" Cameron let me know as I finished dressing "And Seven of Nine wants to tell about some ideas she has".

I'd best spend a little time with my women before going to stasis for the next treatment. Once I'd completed that treatment I would need to spend some time learning to control the mental powers that I should gain.

"Remind me talk to Miranda sometime today" I said to my attractive looking Terminator "I'm going to have deal with the IOA, maybe she'll have more luck than me".

I'd made better deals with the people in Pegasus. I'd gotten the people who'd been living in and around an Ancient outpost, which was in a massive volcano, to give me the bodies and tech of three dead aliens for next to nothing. But for some reason the IOA just kept making demands and delaying.

(Line Break)

 **SGC. Earth.**

The last time I'd been on Earth it had been Jack O'Neill who'd been in charge of this base. Now it was General Landry who command here, and SG1 had disbanded. Teal'c was off running the Free Jaffa Nation. Samantha Carter was working on the Tauri ships, most likely trying to turn the blueprints for phase cannons I'd given them into something workable. As for Daniel Jackson he was working with me.

We'd found the Ancient City ship as planned and now he was going as part of an international team to study it. I'd let Miranda handle arranging that with IOA, they seemed to agree with her a lot more easily than me. Which could have something to do with the fact that the IOA was mostly made up of middle aged men, and that Miranda wore a very tight outfit.

Of course I'd beamed out three ZPMs, and while I could have taken more, as my ship had detected 12 in storage. I decided not to as one day, long after I was gone, Atlantis might need a few ZPMs and the Tauri might provide. Besides Seven of Nine was already working on a way to build more of the devices.

"I thought you might like to be here for this" said the new commanding officer of the his base "SG-12 sent word five minutes ago, so they should be arriving momentarily".

As for me I'd been spending some time at the SGC. I'd been exchanging information with some of their experts on different matters, and I'd learned quite a lot about this galaxy. Later I would catch up with Doctor Jackson who was currently preparing to transfer a lot of information on the different cultures of this galaxy on to a hard drive for me.

This information would be added to the data base on my ship, and also uploaded on Prothean data discs, which I kept stored in the Cosmic Warehouse. I didn't think the information would be of any use, but I hadn't foreseen that the Asgard would be so interested in all the information on the biology of so many races that I'd collected during my other Jumps.

Besides that wasn't all I was getting. Knowledge of technology such as the anti-replicator weapons was going to be exchanged for my groups help on building the next Tauri warship. I wouldn't give them phase cannons, rather they were going to get laser cannons. It would give them more fire power without making their ships much of threat to me.

One of the people who worked in the control room announced the reception of the iris deactivation code over the loudspeaker, and the shield ground open, soon admitting a dark-haired woman walking backwards and two members of SG-12.

The tall woman turned around with a grin when she saw all the guys with guns who had their weapons pointed at her. The Goa'uld might have been defeated, at least for the most part, but that didn't mean the SGC was letting its guard down.

"Well, you all have me surrounded!" the woman shouted in what seemed like glee.

I knew who she was, however I went along with the introductions.

"Welcome to the SGC. I'm General Landry" the air force officer greated.

O'Neill hadn't retired he was just moving on so that he could take charge of the military at the golden city-ship.

"Vala," she replied. "Vala Mal Doran"

This woman was a former host to the a Goa'uld, and a criminal, she'd once tried to steal one of the Tauri vessels. She was also very attractive in person. Her leather outfit was really doing it for me.

"Thank you all so much for the lovely greeting party," Vala continued by saying "We all had a wonderful time searching each other, didn't we boys?".

She then turned to me.

"I know we haven't met" she said "I'm sure I would remember".

While I suspected that having been 'evolved' made more attractive to women, possible they sensed my superior genes in some subtle manner, or I could be influencing their minds in some way even I didn't know about, I didn't think this had anything to do with why Vala was looking at me the way she was. Although I couldn't help thinking that she was checking me out.

"Nice outfit," I said "Leather suits you".

"Thanks!" she replied.

She was then brushing past everyone as though she owned the place, she surveyed the 'Gate Room' while totally ignoring the weapons trained on her.

"While I'd normally be thrilled to have so much testosterone at my disposal" she said next "Where's my Daniel?".

I half expected her to call for him like the man was a lost puppy.

"Why don't you follow me" suggested the general.

We all headed out of the Gate room and up the stairs past the control room. Upon reaching the briefing room, one of the guys from SG12 placed a large metal case on the table before he and his friend beat a hasty retreat.

Within moments, Doctor Jackson arrived. The former host grinned widely when he entered the room, and I wondered if she had any real feelings for him, or this was still just part of her act. I couldn't find out for sure as if I was going to gain telepathy as power I hadn't gotten it yet.

"Okay, where is it?" Daniel asked without preamble.

Vala was clearly unflappable.

"Nice to see you, too. How've you been?" she asked.

I didn't blame Jackson for being in a rush to get to this over with. He'd left Atlantis to find the golden city-ship, and now that we had found it he'd had to wait for load of diplomatic mess to be dealt with before he could start studying the place.

"The tablet. The one that leads to the incredible buried Ancient treasure?" Jackson asked.

At least this time it wouldn't led to them alerting the Ori to the presence of humans in this galaxy. Also that this was happening now meant that I'd been in this universe for over a year. Where had the time gone?

"There is no tablet" Vala "I lied... I had to tell you in person. I'm pregnant".

Supposedly 'evolved' or not I had to snigger. This was all so much funner when you saw it in person.

"Pretty sure it's yours anyway, there's at least a one in ... ten chance?"

Apparently, Daniel had had enough, turning to leave the room before being ordered by the departing Landry to take a look at the tablet. Daniel surveyed the alien text quickly.

"Uh... Yep... Don't know where you got this but, uh... you got ripped off. It's complete gibberish" he soon said.

I leaned in for a closer look, before remembering that the Perk that allowed to read stuff like this didn't work if it was in code. And this either was in code or someone had carved some total rubbish in Ancient on tablet.

"It's written in code," Vala claimed "and I have the cipher"

"Then why do you need me?" Jackson asked.

"Well, reading it is one thing, understanding it is another," Vala pointed out. "The individual I got this from assured me that the treasure it describes is here on Earth. Now, I could have come by ship and looked for it myself, but I know nothing about your fair planet, other than it seems to have a rather interesting if somewhat limited gene pool".

I didn't any mind reading powers to know that she lying. She knew enough to know exactly the kind of information that would catch the right kind of attention, and exactly which linguist to pick to translate it. She was here for a reason, and it wasn't just treasure, perhaps she needed to lie low for a while

"Limited gene pool, right," Daniel said testily. "While I'm sure there are plenty of men on this planet with similar colouring and build, there are millions more who look entirely different".

Vala ignored that.

"I tried to make contact before, but they told me you were away" Vala said to Jackson "Where have you been?".

Something on the tablet had the man's attention. Maybe it wasn't all gibberish.

"In a galaxy far, far away" he said.

Hearing that made me smile.

"Really? I've never travelled outside the galaxy before. Can I go with you?" she asked.

"No!" Jackson shouted.

"Yes" I offered.

Everyone turned to me.

"I have to go back to Atlantis in a few weeks, and I have a big ship. I don't mind taking people along for the ride".

Thanks to replicators, the Star Trek kind, I had no issues with supplies and my life support system could support hundreds.

"I'd rethink that offer if I were you" Jackson advised.

Vala fisted her hands on her hips.

"Just because I stole the tablet from the blathering idiot who found it, doesn't mean-"

"You stole it?" the General asked.

Now Vala's was trying to look innocent. Which was impossible given the outfit she was wearing.

"Did I say 'stole'?" she asked.

Why was anyone shocked by this?

"Yes, you did," the General replied.

At this point I wondered what had happened to that Mitchell guy. Wasn't he suppose to be leading SG1 at this point? I'd inquire about that later. Assuming I could be bothered too.

"Well I remember the words used when the Tok'ra were describing you" Jackson said "They were not flattering".

"Those back-stabbing, self-serving, hypocritical worms!" Vala said.

She sounded as if she didn't like the Tok'ra, but they'd freed her from the Goa'uld she'd been forced to carry as a host. Perhaps they'd not taken very good care of her afterwards.

"They are, aren't they?" Daniel replied.

Well this was all so amusing, but I had things to do, and I should warn the good doctor about the bracelets. Thor and I had dealt with the vault a while back so the treasure hunt would go nowhere, and once it became clear that Vala was outstaying her welcome I could make my offer.

Before that I should return to my ship and make sure everything was safely secured away. Vala was fun, but she did have sticky fingers, and I didn't want her blowing herself up. I'd also have to box up some naquadah so that I could pay her.

She'd be worth the money, she had a lot of connections and could no doubt help me get my hands on some of the rarer bits of Goa'uld technology that was out there.


	20. Chapter 20

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 20**

 **Aurora-class Ship. Milky Way Galaxy.**

Holograms which displayed strands of DNA danced before my eyes as I worked the controls of the machine that was playing such a big role in me becoming a more advanced being. Not to long ago I would have found a device like this to be complex to use, now it seemed so simple, as did the altering of DNA.

Normally I was the one being altered by this machine, and the latest treatment had resulted in me gaining some funky powers, including the ability to move things with my mind and stimulate the nerve endings of humans, inflicting both pleasure and pain.

No doubt I would gain more abilities if I went for another treatment, however since I was taking my advancement slowly there was no rush to put me back in the machine. For a change it was someone else in the stasis chamber, waiting to have their DNA messed with.

I found it odd to be on the other side of this process. I was only now realising just how much trust someone would have to give us others in order to have this machine used on them. I hadn't considered that as carefully as I should have.

Heimdall, an Asgard geneticist, was allowing me to assist her as she used the equipment we'd taken from Anubis's hidden lab, as well as some Asgard tech, to alter the genetics of Tali'Zorah's quarian form, it was a minor adjustment meant to give an immune system so that in her natural form she wouldn't have to wear the suit. Of course for her it would hardly be a minor change.

Compared to making me a near-ascended being this should have been simple, and it would have been over already if not for the fact that Heimdall was taking the time to teach me to use the machines. She wouldn't be here forever, and wasn't going to come with us on the next Jump that was for sure, so I had to learn to use this technology.

Seven of Nine was much better than myself at using technology of all kinds, and understanding it, but her tastes ran more towards physics, and she had little love for biological sciences. Although actually altering DNA could be considered chemistry rather than biology.

The process could be reversed as long as a person who'd undergone treatment was strong enough and as long as we had samples of their untreated DNA. Which was why samples of my DNA were taken from me very often, so that if I went too far and advancement got out of control, I could be regressed to an earlier state without having to go back to being a normal human.

"The treatment is prepared" declared Heimdall.

Much like Thor this member of the Asgard race was rather found of humans, and had been long before I'd aided in her efforts to save her people. As for those efforts, I wondered how things were going.

"Any progress in your efforts to create a more stable clone?" I asked.

The Asgard couldn't just use human DNA to help make new bodies because our physical form couldn't support the powerful and advanced Asgard mind. However the Ancients were another matter, by mixing the DNA of advanced humans with that of their own they could create new clone bodies. Ones they might be able to use to reproduce sexually and perhaps even ascend.

"Very well thank you" replied the small alien "The Asgard race will not forget your efforts on our behalf to create our new clone bodies. The knowledge I have gained by studying your advancement may even aid us as we attempt to put our back on a path towards ascension".

This was good news. The Asgard were a kind and moral people who should be allowed to endure. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside to know I was playing a role in saving them.

"Glad to hear it" I said "Now let's start Tali's treatment, and then we can try to find out if its possible to slice Seven's DNA so we can give Miranda's superior genes".

It might even be possible to give other humans biotic powers as well as superior genes. This wouldn't help them if they wanted to ascend, but not everyone cared about that.

"Then let us begin our work" said the Asgard.

I imagined that this would take a while.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Battleship. Milky Way Galaxy.**

Not for the first time I was glad of all the room I had on board for my ship as it meant that when one of my crew, mostly Seven of Nine, needed to set up a new lab for the study of something new, they could easily do so, and for a change it was I who need the lab as I had some science to do.

Well really it wasn't so much science as it was sorting out some materials and labelling them correctly. Which did sound like some sort of geology.

I'd just spent hours using the Elemental Furnace to create samples of what could be called fictional metals. I'd done this before back on Voyager, but the Asgard stone which enhanced memory was allowing me to recall both the names and properties of metals not found in this universe. Some of which had mystical properties.

Using the Matter Furnace, or as I called it the Elemental Furnace, which had come with the bay I'd been given as a bonus for finishing the Mass Effect Jump. I didn't think that the Matter Furnace was meant to be used the way I used it, rather its purpose was to supply raw materials for the repairing of small craft. However I used to acquire rare metals for study and trade.

Once the samples were correctly sorted I intended to gift them to the Asgard, as not all of their smart people could be working on the clone problem, they must have people who studied metals, and so would other advanced civilizations.

These gifts should generate me some good will, and in the case of the naquadah, be used to trade for things I wanted. There was still a lot of tech out there that Seven of Nine would want to study and could have some use to us.

"Adamantite" I said into the recording device "A metal ore that appears in a number of fictional universes. In _Final Fantasy_ it is a material used to create armour, its source being from another world and its properties including being able to contain great amounts of energy. In _World of Warcraft_ , it is an uncommon ore used to produce weapons and armour of uncommon, rare and epic grade. In the _Dark Elf_ book series by Salvatore set in the _Dungeons & Dragons _universe it is used to create drow weaponry. It is also used for armour in _The Elder Scrolls III_ , and in the game _Terraria_ it is a red ore used to produce armour and other items".

I realised that this could take a while and decided to get some coffee before really getting down to work. Only I couldn't do that as this was Tali walked into the lab while stark naked and in her quarian form.

"Good the treatment worked" I was able to say after finding my voice.

Tali just smiled at me and got closer. I had a feeling that I knew what was going to happen next.

(Line Break)

 **City-Ship. Earth.**

After beaming into the city, using the transporters on my vessel, I discovered that the golden city-ship was everything I had imagined. Until now I'd only been able to imagine as while I'd beamed a few ZPMs out of this city I'd not beamed down until now.

Daniel Jackson, who was here with me, had discovered that there was a city-ship on Earth and using the advanced sensors of my vessel we'd been able to find it. As expect it was deep in the jungle. Which put in Brazil, which was why some of the people here with us, were from that South American country.

It pretty much looked like a gold coloured version of Atlantis, only there was no Stargate, and it more lavishly decorated. As I moved around I realised that it was decorated with artwork that must be from the Pegasus galaxy, made by people who'd died thousands of years ago.

Given that the Ancients were not the kind of people to be concerned with material wealth I figured that the objects must be cultural treasures, objects which had been brought here to perverse what was left of cultures that may have been totally destroyed by the Wraith.

Already a second group was beaming down, having been beamed up from Stargate Command before coming here, and this time it was a group of folks who'd gone to Atlantis. Some of them had been at that city-ship had been sent back to Earth for this mission, which now had international approval.

As for the city-ship itself, thanks a few scans with my omni-tool (I was collecting data for Seven of Nine to go over later) I discovered that it was not made of gold. It was made of the same material as Atlantis, it was just a different colour. However I could see why an explorer of centuries past could wander into the cloaking field see this city and think it was a massive store house of treasure. The relics alone must make this most wealthy city in the galaxy.

"Everything's lighting up but none of the computer are coming online" I heard Samantha Carter saying.

I spent a moment thinking about how attractive the Colonel was before I began to refocus on the current mission.

"Everything in Atlantis came to life when we arrived" Doctor Weir said.

The city should be responding to those of us with the gene, and to an extent it was, hence why the lights were coming on, and also why the AC was working. Which was a very good thing, as the rainforest is a hot place. No cool ocean breeze for the people inside this city-ship.

"Hold on" I said to everyone "The city might be lockdown".

As I had done once before I summoned forth a command console of sorts, which came out of the ground near where the Stargate should be, I could only assume the Ancients hadn't set the gate up for some reason. I interacted with the device, and thanks to improvements made to my mind I was able to take control of the city very easily. Which made sense as I much like an Ancient now, only I lacked their crippling pacifism.

While this machine was sometimes called a Lantean lockout device, and it could be used to lockout alien devices and users from the city-ship's system, its main purpose was actually to give a high ranking Ancient the ability to take control of the city, should it be required. Say at times like when the city was being invaded.

I was able to use it to take the city out of lockdown, and to also bring its systems online, and act which had people dashing for the computers like they were kids in a candy store.

"Oh I can use this for so much more than last time" I said to whomever was listening.

Either this device was more user friendly than the one on Atlantis or I was getting much better with this sort of thing.

"I can see the lay out of the city in my mind" I was now saying "Its feeding me reports as well".

Now I was realising that it wasn't just me. This machine was more advanced than one on Atlantis. Which was odd because for the most part the Lantenas never tried to surpass the Alterrans, which why they still used drone weapons millions of years after they were invented.

Although the war with the Wraith had changed that to some extent. And I was getting the impression that this city-ship was to the Lantean's what Atlantis had been to the Alterrans, it was a testament to their brilliance. Something meant to survive the ages as Atlantis had.

"Doctor Mckay!" I called out "This City-ship contains an Auxiliary control center similar to that on an _Aurora_ -class battleship. It's capable of accessing the city's internal communication system and you can use it to determine the status of the Zero Point Modules. Take the transporter on this level and go to it".

Mostly I'd told him that just to get him out of the way. He was even more annoying in person. Although I might need him to confirm something that I had just discovered.

"General O'Neill" I said next "If you put your hand on this device the city will accept you as its commanding officer".

This was a joint USA Air Force/IOA nations mission so Weir was in charge while the American air force provided protection. I didn't know much about the international agreements, and nor did I care to. I had Miranda, who was currently chatting with some diplomats, handling the talks for me and since WWIII hadn't started it was fair to think that she was doing a good job.

General O'Neill had the gene naturally which meant that he was much better suited to taking control of the lockout device than someone who'd been given the gene artificially. He also had experience using Ancient technology and as such was unlikely to blow us all up.

"Just put your hand on it" I instructed O'Neill.

Given the way he acted as he gingerly touched the device you'd think I'd just told him to pet a snake, or to stick his fingers into a fire.

"Okay that's odd" he commented "The city is telling me stuff".

The city had uploaded some information into my mind as well. It was hard for me to understand, so it must be really confusing for someone more limited like him. Of course O'Neill was somewhat used to having loads of information crammed into his skull, as such he should do fine.

"I'll be down in the chair room" I told anyone who was listening "There's something I need to check out".

(Line Break)

 **City-Ship. Earth.**

This control chair had all normal functions of a typical control chair, including weapons control, power distribution, and flight control, but it also had more. From this chair I could control every single door, not counting the ones that opened into private quarters, trigger the fire alarm, mess about with life support, and even turn the lights off.

However while closing doors on people while messing with the lights could be loads of fun, I had something important to focus on. Compared to my battleship this city-ship was much more complex, and while I already had control over most systems there were parts of this that were slowly draining power from the ZPMs, more so than was norma,. and I had no idea what function they had.

"The Stardrive is intergalactic, no surprises there" I said to myself.

I didn't expect anyone to reply.

"Are you alright?" someone asked.

I opened an eye to see Daniel Jackson looking at with a concern expression on his face.

"There's nothing is wrong with me" I assured him.

I'd spent some time with the doctor, but I was only now realising that he actually cared about me. At point I think we'd become friends. Which I found pleasing.

"What has me concerned is that there are two major drains of energy" I explained to Jackson "One is the cloaking field generator, but the other is leading to several very large rooms, and I don't know the purpose of them. Which is worrying because people are going to want to explore every inch of this city, and it might not be safe for them to do so".

Jackson tapped the end of his pen on his chin.

"Well at least we're not underwater" he said.

No doubt he was trying to look on the brightside.

"We are on a lake" I said.

I used my control chair to display a hologram for Doctor Jackson.

"This must be Lake Parime or Lake Parima, as its sometimes known" said Daniel "Its a legendary lake that was supposedly located somewhere in South America. It was reputedly the location of the fabled city of El Dorado, also known as Manoa, much sought-after by European explorers. Repeated attempts to find the lake failed to confirm its existence, and it was dismissed as a myth along with the city. The search for Lake Parime led explorers to map the rivers and other parts of southern Venezuela, northern Brazil, and southwestern Guyana before the lake's existence was suppose to have been disproved in the early 19th century".

I extended the hologram so that it showed more of the area.

"The entire lake is within the cloaking field as is a little of the jungle around it" I explained "That's why no one ever found it from the air, or on foot, at least not twice. You could walk right past the lake and never see it".

Jackson had a question.

"Why is it in South America?" he wondered "I mean it could have landed anywhere. Ten thousand years ago humans were at the hunter-gather stage, so they didn't need to hide from us".

That was good question, and I soon had an answer for him.

"This city-ship should have landed at the South Pole where the Ancient outpost is, but by then it was covered in ice" I said "That wasn't the case when the Ancients left, but they had no way of knowing how much the Earth had changed in millions of years. As such when the city arrived its computer selected this area as an alternate landing site. City-ships aren't easy to land so the computer chose a decent sized lake in an area that wasn't populated at the the time. The dense jungle helps to hide the city since it reduces the chance of anyone wandering into the cloaking field".

As cool as all that was. I did need to focus on something else right now. I brought up a new hologram, which showed where all the power was going.

"The stardrive is inactive" I told Jackson "As are the internal sensors, short range sensors, and the long range sensors. Plus some systems I don't even know the purpose of are also offline".

This city had improved solar power generators, lightening rods, and even wind turbines, meant to provide power for the less important systems. However they were mostly redundant since this had three ZPMs to draw power from and more in storage.

"Amazing" I was now saying "This city is even bigger than Atlantis and if I'm right it has an industrial sector. I don't know what it can produce, but if I'm understanding this correctly its capable of producing Puddle Jumpers, and maybe other small craft".

At least they wouldn't need any of mine then. I'd been intending to offer up a few to the SGC if only so I could make some room in my ship's hanger bay for other craft. Perhaps I would gift them anyway since the Jumpers here would be under IOA control not SGC. Although they'd have to offer me something worth while in exchange.

Either than or I'd have to find out if the Asgard would let me use one of their shipyards in order to install another docking bay, they might do that for some Puddle Jumpers.

As for the industrial part of this city-ship it was possible that Atlantis had one as well, only without three ZPMs it could have remained dormant during the time it was seen in the show.

I also suspected that this city-ship had long range comms that could contact Atlantis, despite the 3 and a half million lightyears distance, but I wouldn't call them yet. No one here on Earth wanted to the Ancients to know that we'd found this place until we'd staked a claim so to speak. Besides it wasn't as if the Ancients had the people needed to occupy the city.

"The cloaking field has been up and running for ten thousand years" I said next "But its only drawing upon a small fraction of the power the shield that protected Atlantis, so where is all that energy going?".

As it turned out the shield to cloak trick had been discovered by the Ancients long before the anyone from Earth found Atlantis. The Lanteans just hadn't used to try to hide from the Wraith because they had placed the city deep underwater before they'd figured out the cloak idea, and by then hiding the city was pointless.

"There are systems here I've never seen before" I told Jackson "A city-ship needs three ZPMs in order to bring everything online and this city has them. But there aren't many labs when compared to Atlantis, so what needs all that power?".

As soon as I asked the city told me, and I was so startled I lost focus, which disconnected me from the city-ship.

"There are thousands of stasis pods in this city" I told Jackson, and Cameron who following me around as normal "And they are all occupied and working".

Which meant there were Ancients here. Hundreds of them.

(Line Break)

 **City-Ship. Earth.**

I relaxed somewhat when I realised that no one was in any danger. The power levels were steady despite a lot of other systems coming online, and thanks the three still mostly full ZPMs there was no rush to get anyone out of stasis.

"According to the ship's log all the children of the Ancients were sent to Earth on this city-ship, along with the elderly, and those that cared for them" I explained the Tauri who was also looking into this matter "I assume the Ancients who returned to Earth via the Stargate were meant to revive them, but for some reason they never did. Possibly because they expected the city-ship to be at the South Pole, not in South America".

Wouldn't be the first time they'd fudged something important up.

"They don't much look like kids" commented John Shepard, who was only here because he had the right gene of that I was sure "This one could be nearly middle aged".

Indeed they did.

"Ancient stasis technology used by the Lanteans doesn't stop you from aging it just slows it down" I explained "So they were kids when they went in, now they are adults. In fact they should look even older than they do. These pods must be a superior model to the ones in Atlantis".

Not all of people in the pods were so young looking. The elders had died in their pods centuries ago, and the parents wouldn't last long out of stasis without aid from the Asgard, but the kids could be up and about in a few hours if we woke them up. Of course they'd be children in adult bodies with no adults of their own race to supervise them so best not to wake up them.

"If there is enough people here for a viable gene pool, at least when added to the hundreds of Ancients in Atlantis, then we could be saving their entire species by recovering these people" I mused.

No one else had planned it all out yet. I did. I was thinking a few steps ahead.

"And how do we get them to Atlantis?" Weir wondered.

While there might be as many as a thousand pods here that wasn't as much trouble as it might seem.

"My ship can carry them" I said "If we tag each pod I can beam them onto my ship and hook them up. I have a ZPM so I can power all these pods. Will take a while, but it can be done. Assuming the Asgard don't take care of it for us, but that will mean telling them about this place".

Weir looked worried.

"The IOA doesn't want the Asgard finding out about this place" she told me "Or the Ancients for that matter. They're worried about losing more technology that Earth could use for defence".

I understood that, and I didn't think they had any reason to be worried.

"You've already studied Atlantis" I pointed out "And this city-ship is on Earth not in some distant galaxy".

I'd been the one to suggest to the Asgard that they should prevent the Tauri from having access to certain technology, but this was their planet. Just as the Tauri didn't have the right to go around deciding the fates of other galaxies, the people of other galaxies shouldn't come here and alter Earth's future.

"You're other option is to leave them in stasis and not give the Ancients a chance to rebuild their species and society" I said to Weir "Are you prepared to do that?".

Somehow I didn't think she was.

"I'll talk the IOA" she said "if they approve then we'll contact the Asgard".

Which wouldn't be too much work as there were several members of that race hanging out on board my ship.


	21. Chapter 21

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 21**

 **Moon. Sol System.**

Looking around the Ancient lab/base I had to wonder how many other places like this were hidden not just in the system, but all over the galaxy. If it wasn't enough to find a whole city-ship on Earth which contained over a thousand still living Lanteans in stasis now we'd found a moon base of all things.

My team had found it by sheer chance while doing a detailed sensor sweep of the solar system, which along with the launching of dozens of Starfleet style probes, was an effort to fully map this part of the galaxy. Once we'd found the moon base I'd contacted Stargate Command and I'd invited them to send people as part of a joint away team.

I had no intention of claiming this lab/base, as given how close it was to Earth the Tauri simply wouldn't allow it, and I had plenty of labs of my own. If I ever did build a base it would be far away from this solar system.

As for the purpose of this lab, given its location it most likely used by the Ancients to study Earth. But that wasn't the interesting part, what really had my team's attention was that this base had a Stargate, one that was connected not to the gate network, but a space station which contained more gates. The station had a ZPM, but it was close to be being depleted.

However long term exploration of the space station wasn't my concern, and I was doubtful that the Tauri would allow me to make use of the station anyway as they would want to claim it, and would justify it by pointing out that one of the gates led to the moon, which was right next to Earth.

Not that this bothered me, in fact it suited me if the Tauri spent more of their time in their own backyard and less time messing things up for other people in different parts of the universe.

"I know it's not much compared to a whole city ship" I said to Colonel Carter, who was at a nearby control console "But it could be the start of a moon base".

Carter smiled.

"The IOA is considering just that" she told me "In fact they want me to take command of this place and supervise the construction of a proper moon base if it can be funded".

Wow for the IOA that was quick work. In my experience mostly they just talked a lot, never really decided anything, and then tried to blame others when things went wrong.

"I thought the IOA was trying to keep the American military from gaining more influence over things outside of Earth" I said.

While O'Neill was running security at the new city-ship, having moved on from the SGC, the IOA had managed to put the city-ship under civilian control (Doctor Weir was in charge) and was crewing it with people from all over the world. Although given the lockout device it was actually O'Neill in control of the city.

"Well the USA kinda owns the moon" Carter told me "There was that whole thing with Neil Armstrong and him planting the American flag".

Yes that would have to be taken into account.

"But I will be leading an international team of scientists" she then informed me "But with the air force providing security, like with the city-ship, only this base will be more of an extension of Stargate Command".

Hopefully stuff like that would led to a more united Earth in the future. Also it might led to the Tauri becoming more isolated in the future, now that they had so much to study within their own system. Which might suit me very well.

"The only downside is that it means the Stargate program is getting downsized even further" Carter was now saying "Which is bad for the human worlds we're allied with as they won't be getting the support from us they're used to. Maybe the Jaffa can pick up the slack, but I doubt it".

Once I was done here I'd check up on the Jaffa, and make sure that their nation wasn't going to crumble anytime soon, leading to a Jaffa civil war. The last thing this galaxy needed was more division.

(Line Break)

 **Dakara. Milky Way Galaxy.**

While this world was now the centre of the new Free Jaffa Nation, this planet was originally inhabited by the Ancients; it was the first planet they landed on when they arrived in the Milky Way. As such it could be argued that the world still belonged to the Alterrans and their descendants, which the Jaffa were not. However what remained of the Ancients weren't going to be staking a claim to this world any time soon.

On this planet, the Alterrans, the first group of humans to live in this galaxy, built a massive superweapon/monument that was used to reseed life in this galaxy following the devastation of a great plague that had swept across the Ancient's empire.

The controls for the weapon lied in a small chamber hidden behind a wall with a complex puzzle acting as a lock. A Stargate lies at the base of this monument, and when the device is properly reprogrammed it would allow the energy field to pass through and spread to all of the gates in the Milky Way. However I was sure that I would not be allowed anywhere the device's controls.

While researching city-ships I'd discovered that Dakara was once home to an Ancient city-ship called Discenna, which was where the Ancients worked on a cure for the plague. Like Atlantis, Discenna eventually left Dakara and the Milky Way for the Pegasus Galaxy. However it never arrived, and no trace of the city-ship was ever found. At least not be the Ancients.

After the disappearance of the Ancients, the planet came under control of the Goa'uld, although since the rise of the Goa'uld happened millions of years after the Alterrans left this galaxy it was possible that other races had occupied this planet. If they had then no trace of them was ever found.

During the time of the false gods the planet served a sinister role under the rule of the Goa'uld, as this world was were they first enslaved the Jaffa. However I suspected that the first Jaffa were humans slaves who were modified using only partly understood Ancient technology. The Jaffa believed that they came from human stock as well, but didn't know the details.

According to stories told by Jaffa, Dakara was the planet where their enslavement began, as it was the site of the first Prim'ta ritual. At the Temple, Jaffa were given their strength, health, and long lives, which were granted by their symbiotes.

The temple was the ultimate holy ground of the Goa'uld, who kept the Jaffa loyal by propagating lies that they were gods. The very idea of stepping into Dakara was unthinkable to the Free Jaffa until they actually went and did it.

Around the end of the reign of the Goa'uld, the planet lay deep within Ba'al's territory, making any attempt to claim to the planet tactically unsound, as he kept a number of Ha'taks in range of the world to guard it from such an incursion.

The humanoid Replicator copy of Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter wished to destroy the weapon, knowing it could be reprogrammed to eliminate all Replicator forces in the galaxy. Also the Goa'uld Anubis wished to use this weapon to rebuild the galaxy to his own specifications, by first wiping out all existing life. I could only assume that he wanted to seed the galaxy with humans who would worship him as a god, much like how the Ori must have done in their own galaxy.

Teal'c believed, correctly as it turned out, that the world was the key to bringing Jaffa together under freedom's banner, he realised that capturing the planet and holding it in the name of Free Jaffa would be the catalyst to bringing about the Free Jaffa Nation.

They were able to take the planet, and once they had fortified their position, the weapon was located by Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter, with the aid of her father, Jacob Carter, his Tok'ra symbiote, Selmak, and the System Lord Ba'al, modified and used it to wipe out all Replicators from the galaxy.

After this long and bloody campaign, the Free Jaffa had managed to fend off both Goa'uld and Replicator forces, and take the world for themselves. The capture of the planet proved to the majority of Jaffa still in servitude, that the Goa'uld were not in fact gods.

This led to a general revolt by the Jaffa against their masters. Combined with the weakened state the Goa'uld were left in, after their war with the Replicators, the result was the overthrowing of the System Lords and the all out collapse of the Goa'uld Empire. Aside from a few isolated worlds that were cut off from the rest of the galaxy and some other holdouts held by Ba'al, the Gou'ald hold on the galaxy was now over.

This victory was largely in part because Ba'al, when confronted by Free Jaffa on his mothership over Dakara, fled rather than be killed or captured. His ships were taken over by the Free Jaffa, giving them the fleet they needed to finish off the Goa'uld Empire.

Anubis later retook Dakara in an attempt to use its weapon for himself, but was engaged in eternal battle by Oma Desala at the behest of Doctor Daniel Jackson, allowing the Free Jaffa to reclaim Dakara.

Since then Jaffa from across the galaxy have arrived on Dakara to make it their home and are now working on the establishment of a democratic government. The Free Jaffa currently inhabiting Dakara, were building structures of stone, which was an outward sign of their efforts to build a strong Jaffa society that they hoped to spread into the rest of the galaxy.

Of course building any nation was hard work, and this one was spread across the galaxy, as such it could be generations before the Free Jaffa Nation could live up to its name. I was intending to help with that by trading large amounts of easily replicated supplies for odd bits of Goa'uld technology.

Which was why not long after I transported down near the Stargate that I was greeted by Master Bra'tac. As a leader among the Free Jaffa, he was the one making these trades.

"Tek'ma'te, Master Bra'tac" I said.

I knew that Tek'ma'te was a respectful greeting, although it didn't have a direct translation, and it was also an honorific of sorts.

"Greetings Captain Gothic" the old warrior replied "I was glad to hear that you received my message".

I'd been contacted by the Free Jaffa via Stargate Command, and it was good timing as I'd intended to contact them myself as I wanted to check up on the Free Jaffa Nation, it was better for them to have contacted me as now my presence here wasn't unwelcome.

"And greetings to you Cameron" said the old man.

My Terminator gave Bra'tac a warrior's salute which the old warrior returned. He didn't know what Cameron was exactly, but having met her before he knew that she was far more than she appeared to be.

"Your message mentioned that you had technology for trade" I said to the old Jaffa.

He nodded, and then gestured for me to follow him inside one of taller buildings, which I did, and soon I was looking down at Ha'tak. The massive vessel had landed on the planet, and while it looked intact I could see what seemed to be some effort to unload everything from it. Which included computer cores as well as control panels.

"The ship was damage in a battle with those Jaffa who remain loyal to Ba'al. While it will never fly again, it can house my Jaffa families. We are stripping the craft of everything of value in the hopes of trading for what we need to continue our battles with Ba'al".

War consumed much in the way of both people and resources, and with no Ori to content with the Free Jaffa Nation were focused on taking down Ba'al and his clones. I imagined that once the last system lord was finish the Jaffa would turn their attention to the Lucian Alliance.

"And since I'm in the market for Goa'uld technology you figured you'd invite me here and give me a chance to trade before anyone else even got a look" I said.

Bra'tac nodded.

"You have been most generous in our past deals and the Free Jaffa Nation still lacks the infrastructure to support the war effort" the old Jaffa admitted "And we can not replace these ships. Our only hope is that you will be able to supply us with enough weapons to make up for the loss".

I could just trade, but I was thinking that it might be better to try to fix the Ha'tak, as then we could learn about the technology while aiding an ally. I suggested this to Bra'tac and he frowned.

"A generous offer" he then said "But the Council has already made its mind".

Perhaps I could change it.

"Surely it wouldn't hurt to give us the chance" I said to warrior "Give us a few days to try, and if we haven't made enough progress we can still trade supplies for Ha'tak parts".

Bra'tac spent a moment considering the proposal. It was a good deal that would benefit both sides. My group would gain vast amounts of data while repairing the craft, and the Jaffa would at the very least get some badly needed supplies even if we couldn't fix the Ha'tak.

"I will speak to the Council" he said "If you would return to your ship I will contact you when the Council decides on this matter".

Using my omni-tool to send a signal I beamed Cameron and myself back up to my ship.

(Line Break)

 **P8X-412. Milky Way Galaxy.**

This planet had previously been part of the Goa'uld Qetesh's domain, and as far as the locals knew it still was. They had no idea that their god, Qetesh, had been removed from its host and killed. As far as they were concerned Vala was Qetesh and the Goa'uld still ruled the galaxy.

That didn't concern me too much, I didn't care who anyone worshipped or why, what did concern me was the level of poverty this people had to endure. They had a naquadah mine which produced enough of the metal to sell for a tidy profit, yet they were going to starve.

Well actually they weren't going to starve, I had already sent orders to the ship telling Miranda to replicate much in the way of supplies which would soon be beamed down. Not just food, but also water, clothes, blankets, and simple tools. Plus anything else Miranda thought they might need and wouldn't cost me anything other than some energy to produce.

However while my minor act of charity (it wasn't really costing me anything) would help these people to survive longer, it wouldn't real deal with the long term problem.

"Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day" I said to myself "Teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime".

Vala, who was currently packing up some treasure, turned to look at me.

"What did you say?" she asked.

I was letting Vala hang out on my ship, and she was enjoying the luxury I could provide, because a former host she had knowledge of Goa'uld, and as a crook she had knowledge of the galaxy's seedy underbelly. And also because she amused me.

"A saying from Earth" I explained "Basically it means that it's better to help someone help themselves rather than just give them stuff".

Which wasn't going to stop me from beaming down the supplies, I was just acknowledging that it wouldn't help in the long run. It would take a massive amount of work to combat poverty like this. I'd have to set up a network for trade, ensure education, offer medical care, and provide protection until these different worlds could do all that for themselves.

It might be possible to do all that, but I had no desire to set up an empire since I would be leaving in about nine years, and as amazing as this universe was I didn't want to spend the rest of my life here because there was so much more to see.

"Here it is as agreed" Vala said as she handed me a small box.

I opened it up and found inside a The long range visual communication device is a communications system used by the Goa'uld. Shaped like a gray sphere of varying size, it allowed for a one-way or two-way audio and visual communication link across interstellar distances.

The device comes in different sizes, ranging from handheld versions like the one inside this box, to larger ones that can be several feet in diameter. They seem to function the same regardless of size, although larger versions have some sort of anti-gravity ability which allowed it to float in several feet into the air or at the center of an inactive Stargate.

There was already a large version of this device on board my ship, I'd traded much in the way of replicated supplies for it with the growing Free Jaffa Nation, however it took up a lot of room, and I'd wanted a smaller version of the device for my collection which was kept inside the Cosmic Warehouse.

Another thing I knew was that Tok'ra do not use the devices, as the system was not secure enough to ensure the secrecy of Tok'ra bases. Also I knew that Colonel Harold Maybourne, who was now the king of some primitive human planet, had access to at least two, which after much research were eventually adapted to serve as a communication link with his secret offworld team.

The Goa'uld Tanith used a handheld variant of these devices, which was identical to the one I held now, after escaping the Tok'ra on Vorash in order to contact Apophis and inform him about the location of the Tok'ra base.

"Thank you Vala" I said.

This little trinket was actually worth much, but all she'd wanted in exchange was the chance to recover her treasure. A good deal.

"I have some other technology" the former host told me "Perhaps you can make an offer for them".

More tech was always good.

The first thing she showed me was a Goa'uld tablet , which was s a small device used by the Goa'uld to record information. The tablets have multiple "pages", being changed to by a Page turning device which caused the symbols on the tablet to change. How the information gets on the tablet I didn't know, but I was sure that Seven would figure it out.

She also had one of the page turning devices so at least I could look through what was on this tablet. I quickly learned that Qetesh kept detailed records of the populations of the worlds she ruled, the productivity of her naquadah mines, and military strength. All of which would have been highly useful if Qetesh was still around and needed defeating.

I then recalled that the inventor Ma'chello once used a false page turning device to unleash a weapon designed to kill Goa'uld symbiotes. It successfully killed the Goa'uld, but the use of the device also resulted in the deaths of the hosts. Thankfully this was not one of those versions of the device.

What mattered to me was that these devices were small, and even once studied they could still have value as something to trade later on.

"I'll trade you some naquadah for all of this" I told Vala.

That could be sorted out later. For now I needed to make sure the supplies were beamed down.

(Line Break)

 **Dakara. Milky Way Galaxy.**

After a Jaffa council session, that I was sure had been full of near endless debating, my girls and I had been give permission to work on the Ha'tak vessel rather than let it be gutted and turned into housing. This was a nice opportunity for us and well worth the time spent as we still had much to learn about Goa'uld technology.

The Ha'takwass a class of spaceship designed by the Goa'uld. During the reign of the Goa'uld empire in the Milky Way galaxy, the Ha'tak served as the main class of capital ship employed by most Goa'uld System Lords.

During the height of the Goa'uld empire, the Ha'tak was among the most powerful vessels in the Milky Way, with hundreds having been positioned around the galaxy as to cement and project the power of the Goa'uld empire. Following the fall of the Goa'uld empire in 2005, the Ha'tak's presence in the galaxy endured, being adopted as the main battleship of the Free Jaffa Nation. The oldest class of Ha'taks, such as those used by the Goa'uld Ra, were around 10,000 years old.

Though the Ha'tak remained largely unparalleled in terms of overall power when compared to the ships of most races in the galaxy for centuries, the Ha'tak's prestige had dramatically declined following the fall of the Goa'uld. The ships of several other races, including the Asgard, Tau'ri, and Ori, make us of technologies and had capabilities that far exceed even an Anubis Ha'tak, which were vastly superior to the normal kind.

While attempting to repair the vessel I discovered that a Ha'tak consisted of two sections: the main section was a golden square-based pyramid built into the center of the vessel, evocative of an Egyptian pyramid, and it containied the majority of the primary systems as well as the command areas and Glider bay.

Built around the pyramid is a much larger, triangle-shaped superstructure, which wraps around the center of the pyramid. The outer structure houses the vessel's weapons.

A Ha'tak's armament was vast, each ship possessing 60 high-power Staff cannons scattered around the superstructure. These can be used for ship to ship combat or orbital bombardment. A Ha'tak can also house a large complement of Death Gliders for use as a fighters.

"How's it going?" I asked Tali and Seven as I made my way into passed for a engineering section on this vessel.

Seven, who'd somehow found a even tighter fitting body suit to go with her new collar, reported to me.

"I predict that repairs will be completed in less then ten hours" she said.

This was impressive as we only been here for two hours so far.

"The technology is pretty simple once you get used to it" Tali told me.

I found this to be the case, at least when compared to the Ancient tech it was based upon.

"Very good" I said to the girls "I'm off to speak to Master Bra'tac about Jaffa history. I should be back in a few hours at the most".

I wanted to include a section on the Jaffa in my version of the Book of Origin, however between the success of the rebel Jaffa and their creation thousands of years ago I didn't have much to say other than they served the Goa'uld and killed lots of people. Which didn't paint them in a good light, and while I wasn't going to skip over the galactic oppression, I did want to something good about the Jaffa.

"Contact me if you need any help" I said to the girls.

They were already back at work, so I let them get on with it.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class Warship. Sol System.**

With a familiar flash of light Supreme Commander Thor, the most awesome of the Asgard race, appeared on the bridge of my ship.

"Greetings Captain Gothic" said the little grey dude.

I still wasn't used to being called that.

"Greetings Supreme Commander Thor" I replied "How goes the work of transferring the stasis pods?".

Upon fully inspecting the city-ship we'd found just over a thousand people still alive in stasis. Which would have made moving them a tricky job, more so because I didn't want them woken up until they reached Atlantis. Those people had gone into stasis as children and would wake up as adults, that was enough to mess with anyone's head and it was best dealt with by the remaining Ancients.

Given the sheer size and speed of their ships, as well as their vast knowledge, I'd felt it was best to let the Asgard handle the whole people in stasis issue.

Another reason was that I simply had too much to do. I was aiding the Tauri in building their new ship, which I think in the show ended up being flown about by the Russians, they also needed my help figuring out their new city ship, and I still hadn't finished acquiring all the tech I wanted. Not that I was in kind of rush, there was just a lot to do.

"The task is finished" Thor informed me "I have transported the stasis pods to my ship and have attached them to my ship's power grid. Once I arrived at Atlantis I will transport the pods to the city-ship and let the Ancients deal with their own".

I was impressed. Even for the Asgard this was quick work.

"Well have a safe voyage" I said.

The alien blinked at me.

"I would suggest returning to Atlantis with me" Thor advised "The city-ship is still vulnerable to attack".

And even if it weren't there were still a few locations in that galaxy I wanted to check out before I finally decided what action, if any, to take here in the Milky Way.

"If I tow your vessel we could be there in a few hours" Thor then said.

I agreed to this so, Thor made his farewells, and the beamed away, a moment later his ship locked on to my mine with a tractor beam, and we vanished into hyperspace.


	22. Chapter 22

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis**

 **Part 22**

 **Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.**

The cool sea breeze was helping to sooth my headache, which for once wasn't being cause by my treatments that were 'evolving' me. This time it was due to sheer amount of studying I'd been doing. In order to both write my version of the Book of Origin, and to better understand my own advancement, I'd been spending a lot of time reading the Ancient database.

Just sorting through that vast amount of information enough to find what you were looking for was a staggering task, and then I'd actually needed to read up everything the Ancients had using near-ascended being, and it was a lot harder than it looked on TV. I had no how Mckay had managed to handle it all when he'd been sent rushing towards ascension or death.

To add to my headache Atlantis was now home to more than a thousand people, and while this did mean that the Lanteans could rebuild their civilisation, with the help of the more advanced humans who were native to this galaxy, the Ancients needed my help just feeding and clothing their new population. Which I'd been happy to do, it had just been time consuming and logistics were a nightmare to organise.

Plus that Vala had quickly gone from amusing to annoying, but I could leave her in Atlantis, as I'd not promised anything about taking her back to the Milky Way, and frankly if anyone could hitchhike their way to another galaxy it would be Vala. Besides the Asgard would give her a ride, like they had done for Nora the scientist I'd brought on board my ship after helping her people avoid death by super volcano.

With that stress, and my concerns for the people of the Milky Way galaxy, it was good to be out here on this balcony, which gave me a great view of Atlantis in her glory. It was dark so the city was lit up, and while this place was always a sight to behold at night it seemed extra lovely.

As she so often was my Terminator was at my side, sitting in a deck chair next to me mind. Today she wore a floral print sundress that made her look undeniably feminine. She normally covered up more as while she enjoyed me looking at her body I had explained that other people might not want to, so only when we were alone did she show off a little skin.

I found myself amazed about how pale her skin actually despite how much time we'd spent under so many different suns, I guessed that SkyNet hadn't thought to program its terminators to tan. When she noticed me looking I said something about admiring her dress.

She simply said she liked the way it looked on her. I'd expected some technical explanation about how she only wore clothes because they were social camouflage or something equally preposterous. Still I had to admit, she was right, it did look good on her, but then again almost anything she wore did.

The moon floated above us, this world like Earth had the one, it bright and almost full in a clear dark sky with its glittering field of stars. However as stunning as the view was I couldn't help looking at Cameron. I found a little odd that an 'evolved' human such as myself cared at all about women's bodies, but I also found it encouraging as it meant I hadn't changed that much.

"Do you want to have sex?" she asked.

Her voice carried a hint of eagerness, she was more expressive when we were alone, but it took some effort from me to notice.

"I was thinking we could just start off with you giving me a blowjob and see where things go from there" I suggested as nonchalantly as I could.

"Felatio is enjoyable for men" she needlessly informed me

I watched as she gracefully and without hesitation grabbed the hem of her dress and pulled it off over her head, revealing the body that she had told me more than once that it was my property to do with as a I wished.

She wasn't wearing anything under her dress so I let gaze roam over her nudity, I'd seen her naked a lot over the years, but I never grew tired of checking out her tits, or admiring her curves, or checking out her butt, which was small yet somehow always seemed to nicely fill out her jeans.

Her eyes never wavered or left his as she reached over and undid my belt, unbuttoned my jeans and pulled down my zipper all without looking. She then shifted onto her knees, still facing me, only now looking up at me, but still keeping my contact even as she got to work.

I groaned heavily as she sucked, she'd had many years to perfect her blowjob techniques, and she'd had many chances to demonstrate the improvements she'd made to those techniques.

Opening my eyes, I'd not even realised that I'd shut them, I note of how hot Cameron looked with her lips stretched around my cock. I decided then that I was just going to have her suck me off tonight, and that I might have her do it a few times if the mood struck me.

(Line Break)

 **Delta Flyer. Pegasus Galaxy.**

The ship my crew and I had built to replace the crashed runabout, which I'd been forced to abandon after it had been shot down by the hostile aliens we still knew nothing about. This knew version of the Delta Flyer was similar to the one flown by Tom Paris in terms of looks, but it was different once you got under the hood.

It was armed with twin pulse plasma cannons as well as naquadah enhanced torpedoes, it had Ancient style shields, Asgard/Ancient/Starfleet sensors, improved life support systems, an interstellar hyperdrive (an intergalactic one would have required too much power) and an Asgard style naquadah reactor as a power source which was superior to an antimatter reactor because it was more stable.

Another thing that was different about this Delta Flyer was that its test flight involved having a member of the Asgard race on board. He was here because the Asgard had assisted in the creation of the new Delta Flyer as part of our program for exchanging technology.

The Asgard had even gone as far as to share the specifications for a new type of armour, which was vastly superior to anything even Seven could have come up with.

Tyr was a member of the Asgard race and was a highly distinguished member of their military, having served as commander of the Valkyries. He was involved in operations against the Goa'uld in the Milky Way galaxy and was present when the Protected Planets Treaty was struck.

Following the creation of the Treaty, Tyr took a number of Humans under his protection and settled them on a world devoid of a Stargate called Vanaheim. The planet was in the grips of an ice age and many of the settlers died as a result of the cold winter but managed to prosper during the other climates.

Tyr was also known to have transported a Stargate from another world to Vanaheim and warned the Human inhabitants of the world of the threat of the Goa'uld. He also differed on the opinion of deploying Thor's Hammer on Vanaheim; instead, Tyr provided its inhabitants with shock spears as well as allowed them to develop into an advanced people.

This was because Tyr felt that the only way the Human inhabitants of Vanaheim could defend against the Goa'uld was by defending themselves.

His actions, well noble, proved to be quite unpopular amongst the Asgard who felt that Tyr had interfered in the natural development of a species. It was Thor who stripped Tyr of his rank and demoted him to being the commander of a single ship. Despite this being the case, the inhabitants of Vanaheim prospered and held Tyr in high esteem as a god.

Tyr was the commander of small Asgard warship which was currently guarding Atlantis, and upon discovering that I was building a new kind of ship, at least it was new to this universe, he'd joined the project and had gotten permission from his superiors to aid the project by adding Asgard technology in exchange for getting some Star Trek technology.

"I am detecting the time dilation field" reported Seven of Nine.

Unlike when we'd lost the runabout we hadn't left hyperspace unprepared, we had our shields up and our weapons online, only as it turned out the hostile aliens weren't here. Which meant our last encounter may have in fact simply been bad luck.

Still it would be best to remain on guard just in case the aliens had cloaking tech. It was unlikely that they'd been able to back engineer it form the crashed runabout, but for all we knew they'd had cloaking technology for a very long time. It may have aided them in hiding from the Wraith.

"I would like to take this chance to scan the time dilation field" Tyr declared "While the Asgard do have this technology our scientists may benefit from being able to compared readings from a time dilation field that was created by the Ancients".

No doubt Seven would also like to study the field, and she would ample chance to.

"Well you should have a few hours to do that" I told everyone "If I recall correctly about six months in field should equal a few hours out of it".

Which should give me ample time to study the spiritual path to ascension so that I could add the information to my book, and time to learn what the people within the time dilation field knew about the powers of those near-ascension, which was the main reason why I was going.

"I should go with you" said Cameron.

As my bodyguard she didn't like the idea of me going off for what could be half a year and not having her with me. However I had no idea if someone who wasn't human could even enter the time dilation field. Given the existence of the Asurans their might even be security features in place that could damage or even destroy an artificial person.

"The only danger in that field is something you can't protect me from" I said to the cyborg.

She didn't argue the point, and since everyone else knew what do I was soon beaming down to the planet.

(Line Break)

 **The Cloister. Pegasus Galaxy.**

I stepped through the portal to the time dilation field that encompassing the Ascension Sanctuary aka the Cloister, which was a place where the people of the Pegasus Galaxy could come to meditate towards ascension without fear of getting fed on by the Wraith

Due to time running much faster within the field I could be away from Atlantis for months inside the field while only hours will have passed on the city-ship, meaning that I wouldn't be cut off from the rest of the galaxy. In fact only the people on the new Delta Flyer, which was currently in orbit of this planet, would even notice that I was gone.

After walking out of a network of caves I found myself in a forest. Then after walking for five or so miles, the Cloister was not a small place, I came to a large grassy field. I was crossing the field when a I heard a roar in the distance but I didn't let it slow me down.

"Help…help me please," shouted a man as he came running out of the woods towards me.

Events seemed to going much how they did for Shepard, which made me wonder if the ascended beings were playing a part here, but it was too early to tell.

"It's there…in the trees," said the man as he pointed towards where the noises of a beast were coming from. "It is the Beast and the village is too far".

Unlike this human I was not worried about the Beast because I knew exactly what it was. Mostly it was psychic manifestation that came from the minds of the humans that lived here. Its power depended on how scared the people living in the field were, so normally the Beast was just a test that the people attempting ascension had to overcome to reach enlightenment.

However should hostiles, such as the Wraith somehow enter the time dilation field, which they would have to do so on foot since any craft trying to enter the time dilation field would be ripped apart, the people of the Cloister would feel great amounts of fear and the Beast would destroy the invaders. Which made it both a test and a means of defence, clearly one of the better ideas the Ancients had come up with.

"It's upon us but you can't fight it" the man said.

He was wrong about the Beast could be thought, but it would take a powerful mind to drive it away. Thankfully I had one of those.

(Line Break)

 **The Cloister. Pegasus Galaxy.**

After driving away the Beast, I ended up carrying the man back to his village, as he'd fainted in fright. Apparently reaching a state of near-ascension did not require much in the way of bravy. Now I was sitting with the three siblings who made up one of the families which lived with the the Cloister.

"I am Teer" said the beautiful near ascended woman as she gestured to her siblings "This is Avrid and Hedda".

Hedda was a little girl who had healing powers if I remembered correctly. Hopefully she understood how to use them fully and could explain the process to me as that was a power I wished for greatly.

"What happened," Avrid asked.

No doubt he expected to be dead by now.

"I made the beast go away" I told the guy.

A blast of mental energy had been enough to drive it off for a time. Thankfully I'd learned that trick, it was much like how in the show Daniel Jackson was able to blast the Orici, bypassing her personal shield.

"Thank you for saving me from the beast. Only the ascended know how you did that," Avrid said.

I could detect a bit of awe in voice, and this pleased me as if I had the gradiute of this family then it should be easier for me to learn from them.

(Line Break)

 **The Cloister. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Later after I changed into some of the local village style clothes, Teer showed me around the village, and then onto the areas around the small settlement. As it turned out there was a lot more here than what I'd seen in the show. There were farms, orchids, and a river all close by, which provided the people here with ample food and water. The wooded areas also helped as aside from providing firewood it was also full of nuts, and berries, which seemed to grow all the time. I quickly learned that seasons didn't exist here and that the weather remained pleasant. Clearly when setting things up the Ancients had arranged things so the humans who came here didn't have to struggle to make ends meet.

"How do you like it here," Teer asked me as we walked through the field I'd found her brother in.

While it was primitive, the place had a certain charm to it, and it was peaceful

"I like it a lot. The company is very enjoyable," I answered with a warm smile.

A smile which she returned, and soon we began talking. I quickly gathered some of the information I desired, letting my omni-tool record everything so that later on I could go through it and decide what to add to my book.

"I'm from a race of people who revered those who came before us, those who created this place" Teer told me "To follow in their footsteps, to ascend, was the greatest goal among our forefathers. Many centuries ago some of our people sensed it was within them to do so. It took them many years to discover the location of this world and once they found it they came to this world as a pilgrimage. We are their descendants".

All good stuff to know.

"So your people have been trying to ascend for a long time" I realised "Do you know what is holding you back…are you afraid it might not happen?".

While ascension held no appeal for me I understood that for others it was worthy goal, and I didn't mind helping others achieve this goal.

"We are not afraid of anything," Teer told me with a smile.

She was less than convincing.

"What about the beast?" I asked "Avrid seemed pretty afraid of that".

Not that I could blame him, the Beast was suppose to scare people, if it didn't then standing up to it wouldn't be much of a test.

"We are safe as long as we stay close to the village" replied Teer.

Given that we weren't that close now she was in danger, or so she might think, the Beast wouldn't actually kill humans, there were failsafes to prevent that according to the Ancient database. Of course that didn't mean that the Beast was incapable of injuring people.

"And you find that an enjoyable life," I asked.

Still around mediating was not much of a life in my opinion. But I was a Jumper, my life was moving from reality to reality, gather technology, experiencing new things, and gaining power.

"Well life here is not entirely without its pleasures," said Teer as she stepped closer to me.

I figured that I knew what she meant.

(Line Break)

 **The Cloister. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Weeks quickly became months within the field and I took this time as an opportunity to learn, not just about the spiritual path to ascension, but also how to use my own near-ascended powers, which weren't just limited to stimulating nerve endings. I could now move things with my mind, which wasn't so impressive given that I still had biotic abilities, and I could heal people. I'd even managed to alter the weather enough for a good wind, however the Ancients had put in place measures to prevent storms within the field as of yet I hadn't been able to test the extent of that ability.

Once I had my final treatment I might develop even more powers, but for now I was content with what I had, and I spent my time perfecting control over my new abilities. However I was laying the ground work for control of future powers by learning everything I could.

Still I knew that my time here would be over soon. The people here were very close to ascension, they just needed to stand up the Beast as their final test, once they had I would leave this place. Perhaps in time others would come here.

Because I knew the end of what had mostly been a vacation for me, and a pleasant one since I still had access to the Cosmic Warehouse, somehow, I went for a final walk with Teer to the field that seemed to be her favourite part of the Cloister.

"I can see events currently happening most anywhere I want and possible futures to some extent. I saw that you would come some day and lead my people to ascension" said Teer as she lay back on the ground and held her arms out invitingly for me. "I also saw that we would do this".

As I began to undress her I realised that I had totally taken Shepard's place in this adventure.

"And I saved myself for you Gothic" she said.

Well who could refuse virgin?

(Line Break)

 **Delta Flyer. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"It's good to see you all again!" I called out once I had beamed back on board the new Delta Flyer.

No one seemed happy to see me.

"You were only gone for two hours" stated Cameron.

From her perspective this was true.

"Actually I haven't seen any of you for months" I told my Terminator.

For some reason Cameron didn't quite get the whole 'time runs faster in the field' thing. I wondered if it had something to do with the way she viewed time. As an android with an organic covering she would not see the world as I did or feel the passage of time like a human,

"Never mind" I then said "Let's just go back to the ship".

Seven and Tyr both let me know that they had finished their scans, as such there was no reason to stick around, so moments later the small ship jumped into hyperspace.

(Line Break)

 **Laros. Pegasus Galaxy.**

While in the show this planet was never named, being called Harmony's world if anything, I discovered soon after finding it that the world was in fact called Laros. It was a human world with a medieval style civilization, only it much nicer than medieval Europe must have been.

I was interested in this planet because long ago the Lanteans formed an outpost at a location that the current people dubbed the "Ruins of Larris". The Lanteans built the outpost on this world in order to develop a miniature version of their infamous Drone weapons.

Mini-drones, as the name implies, are a miniaturized version of the drone weapon technology developed by the Ancients. They function in much the same way as the larger version, but were designed as an anti-personnel weapon. Mini-drones operates on the same basic principle as larger drones do. They are enveloped in a powerful energy shield which allows them to burrow through virtually anything, then perforate the target to destroy it.

The power requirements of mini-drones are unknown; however given that the testing site has been active and continuously powering groups of mini-drones for over 10,000 years with no mention of a power drain they must not require much energy.

This version of the technology has the ability to detect the Ancient Technology Activation gene, and will register any who have it as friendly. Though mini-drones behave in much the same manner as regular drones, they have unique behaviors due to their anti-personnel design. Unlike regular drones, which remain inactive until needed, mini-drones fly in a constant search pattern unless otherwise instructed, protecting their designated territory from intruders.

The testing planet is the only observed usage of mini-drones by the Lanteans, so it is unclear how they intended to implement them on a wide-scale. Their design and behavior suggests that they are meant for defense rather than offense, presumably to safeguard their ships and facilities from Wraith troops.

The people of Harmony's planet had incorporated the ruins into their mythology. Before a woman can become queen, she must go on a rite of passage in which the destination is the Ruins of Larris. The soon-to-be queen must return a pendant to the ruins and place her hand on a pedestal. If the pendant then glows, she is the true queen of her people.

I needed that pendant, or at least a decent scan of it, and since it would be years before Harmony went on her rite of passage, I would have to settle for a scan and hope I could duplicate the key so that what remained of the Ancient outpost could be studied.

For the moment I had no use for mini-drones, since I had no bases to defend, and plenty of powerful hand held weapons, I knew that this could change in the future.

As it turned out the pendant was current in the possession of Princess Flora. In the far, distant past, at least one Ancient became an ancestor in Flora's family line, passing down the Ancient Technology Activation gene to her and too her younger sister Harmony.

Thankfully getting a meeting with her wasn't hard. I had near-ascended powers and as such the humans of this galaxy saw me as one of the Ancestors, and as such while they didn't worship me, I did get much in the way of respect.

"So seduce the princess, scan the pendant" I said to myself as I waited for my audience "Shouldn't take too long".

It would be better to go to bed with her and wait for her to fall asleep rather than stun her as while the people of this world were no threat to me there was no reason to antagonize them.

"Go get em champ" Cameron said.

I assumed that was some attempt to encourage me.

"Yeah thanks" I told her just as a page arrived to announce that it was time for my audience.


	23. Chapter 23

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis**

 **Part 23**

 **Aurora-class warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

My ship spent much of its time in this part of the universe guarding Atlantis, so that the Ancients could use one of their ships to hunt down Wraith, without fear of their city-ship coming under attack by those unknown hostile aliens. A fear now even greater given how many people now called Atlantis home.

No one was in a rush to wipe out the space vampires. They simply weren't a threat any more, and actually finding all of their ships was a time consuming endeavour. Had any of us come from cultures which had spent the last ten thousand years being culled every few generations we would feel different, but none of us had, and we would never understand what it was like.

However I didn't need spend all my time playing guard dog so I got to take my ship out into the galaxy to explore. Sometimes this involved charting star systems, but now and again we found a habitable planet just like the one we were currently orbiting.

This world had two moons and a Spacegate. Also there is a long stretch of mountains on this world that made the alps look rather unimpressive, and separating the only two human settlements that we could detect was a great wilderness of over a 100 square miles.

"We don't know much about this planet but from the records there's no indication of any advanced technology, and our scans don't show any either" Miranda informed us.

Cameron and I didn't really made up an away team, but not one else on board had any interest in getting to know the people of some primitive planet. I however did fancy going down there and taking a look around. It was a whim more than anything else, as for Cameron, she just didn't want me wandering about on my own.

"So it's a standard recon' mission" I said

Should be rather dull, but if nothing else it should give me a chance to stretch my legs. Which I desired greatly after spending so much time on my ship.

(Line Break)

 **Town. Unnamed Planet.**

"Where is everyone?" I wondered.

This was a populated village, a small town I'd say. It even had lamp posts that were lit. However there was not a single person on the street. This combined with the fog made for a spooky scene.

"Look there's smoke" said Cameron while pointing.

The smoke was coming out of the chimney of a large building, and as we got closer to the structure I could hear voices.

"Must be the local tavern" I reasoned.

We went inside to see many people sitting around, and they stopped talking as soon as they saw us. Which wasn't as rude as it might seem as Cameron I must both look very strange to the locals. My armour and weapons had to make me a fearsome sight, and Cameron's 21st century clothing would seem no less odd.

Soon a man came over and began to talk to us, as things settled somewhat down in the tavern. We took seats and the man, who must be the bartender used a rag to wipe down the table.

"Are you from Ratira" he asked.

I shook my head.

"No" I said.

Ratira had to be the other settlement we had detected, it was on the other side of a vast wilderness and while there must be a route to that town it would be a rough one given the sheer distance. There could be some villages around, but we'd not been able to detect them from orbit.

"We're from very far away" Cameron added.

Hopefully no one would ask for more details.

"I take it you don't get many strangers around here" I said.

The bartender shook his head.

"You really don't know" he said "Do you?".

I sensed that something was amiss, and this was confirmed when an older looking man, who was possibly a local leader, ordered the bartender to be silent.

"What's your business here" the older man then asked.

"We're just explorers" I said "Travellers".

Not to be confused with the human group of space nomads who were called the Travellers. Whom I was sure I would met with again soon.

"We'll you'd best keep travelling then" said the man.

I decided that it was time to leave. Most humans in this galaxy were friendly enough, but these clearly weren't and I wasn't going to stay where I wasn't welcome. We'd leave this tavern, go somewhere out of sight, and beamed back up to the ship.

"Wait, Goran. You can't turn them out there" argued the bartender "It's been 3 months. How much longer do you think it will wait?"

Something about all this was starting to seem familiar.

"Will what wait?" I asked.

I was soon told.

"The Daimos. It lives in forest. Feeds on humans" Goran said. "It's a creature, that has the appearance of a man, but it can suck the very life from your bones. It leaves only a dead, withered husk behind".

I sighed.

"We call these creatures the Wraith" I told Goran.

The man told a story of how 10 years ago when something from the sky crashed in the woods near the town, and how these people killed all of the aliens who'd survived the crash. Which had turned out to be a wise course of action since the aliens were Wraith.

"We think one of them survived our slaughter" he finished by saying "Now the creature feeds every few months and takes at least a couple of people. One of the people taken by the Daimos was my own son".

Cameron stood up, took out her disruptor pistol and turned it to the highest setting, which would totally vapourise a humanoid in a single shot.

"Go back to the ship I'll take care of the Wraith" she said.

Her concern was for my safety, and this Wraith was a threat. As for me I now knew what world this was, and what could be found here.

"We'll take care of your Damios problem" I told the leader of these people.

Cameron could hunt the male I'd take care of the female.

(Line Break)

 **Wilderness. Unnamed Planet.**

Cameron was a Terminator, she'd never performed the role of one, and was not programmed to seek out humans in order to destroy them while in the service of skynet, but she was perfectly capable of the role, and while her primary purpose was to protect, she was able to kill.

As it turned out tracking a Wraith through a vast wooden area wasn't that different than hunting a human. Both species were after all bipedal, and they both depended upon their limited organic senses in order to navigate their environment. She was not so limited.

As such when the Wraith attempted to ambush Cameron, having mistakenly thought her to be a human, he was in for a big surprise. He failed to scare what he thought was his prey, and the blow the chest that would have sent a human to the ground barely nudged Cameron.

To his credit the Wraith didn't allow confusion to prevent them from following up on the attack, but it was rather pointless for him to try. Another powerful blow, one that would broken a human's arm, was blocked by Cameron who then grabbed the space vampire and threw it into a tree.

Before the alien creature could recover Cameron had her disruptor pistol aimed at the Wraith.

"You are terminated" she said.

Cameron fired, and a moment later the Wraith was vapourised. The hunt was already over, now it was time to return to Gothic and to make sure he hadn't gotten himself into any trouble while she hadn't been around to keep an optical processor on him.

(Line Break)

 **Cave. Unnamed Planet.**

"Now why is distillation an important step?" the man asked.

"To... remove the toxins from the ferassin root?" The Wraith replied hesitantly .

"Precisely!" the man said as he smiled proudly at her. "We wouldn't want the serum to send you into paralytic shock, now would we?".

This was really strange. To the Wraith we humans were food, yet here a Wraith was living with a man. In the show it was one thing to see this, but to see it in person was unnatural.

"I made this drug, it means Ellia doesn't have to feed from humans" the man was now saying

This old mine that these two people were living in had shielded their life signs from my ship's scanners, but since I'd known about the mine it had been easy to find.

"Well I have something better than a drug" I told the human and the Wraith "If you're willing to take a chance I might be able to turn Ellia into a human".

Wraith were part human so the DNA resequencer should be able alter the Wraith parts and make them them human. I could even use her adoptive father's DNA and slice into Ellia's DNA making them related by blood.

"You can do that?" asked the Wraith.

It was clear that she wanted this badly.

"Yes" I said "I can take you both away from this world and once the treatment is done you can start new lives somewhere else".

It might even be possible for the female Wraith to marry and have children just like a human woman. However if it didn't work I'd have to keep her in stasis. Perhaps I should just kill her, since she had killed, but she'd done that to survive, not because she was a bad person. Still it would end Cameron would kill the other Wraith, which I hadn't told anyone in this mine about, and Ellia would never return to this world. The deaths would stop and the people of this world would be left alone. That was what mattered, and it was what I had promised.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

It would be a few days before Elli's treatment would turn her into a human, and she would need observation for a good long time after that. Atlantis would be a suitable place for the converted Wraith and her human father to stay until they could be resettled. I didn't intend to become involved in that as the Ancients could handle matters in this small galaxy.

Soon I would turn my attention back to the Milky Way, but as of yet I wasn't sure what to do about the poor humans of that galaxy. It would take more time and further planning before I could make up mind, but I did already have a plan which could be put into motion. However I wanted to wait until I'd finished my last treatment before I took that kind of action.

"Will you please name this ship!" someone yelled out.

I turned my command chair to see Tali, who was in her Quarian form as she worked at the engineering section here on the bridge.

"Sorry what?" I asked.

She turned and I could tell that she wasn't happy.

"It's been over a year" she said "And you still haven't named this ship. You have clearly forgotten that Quarians take the name of the ship they serve on. So until you name this vessel I don't have a full name".

I had in fact totally forgotten about that.

"Okay we can call the ship the Thunderchild" I decided. "It's a warship from an old Earth story".

Tali let out a sigh, and then smiled.

"Thank you!" she shouted as she suddenly left the bridge.

I might be a highly advanced human, but women still made no sense to me.

(Line Break)

 **Vohl. Pegasus Galaxy.**

While this world was mentioned in the databanks of Atlantis I knew very little about it other than it was a planet in the Pegasus galaxy which has a Stargate. Upon actually seeing the world, and being able to scan it we discovered that in Trek terms it was L-class planet much like the world I'd found that Wraith supply ship on.

There was also an M-class planet in this system that was inhabited by humans, but it was primitive and of no concern to me at this time.

Vohl did interest me because I knew that the planet had once been under the control of Ancients who'd built a experimental laboratory there, which they had abandoned when they left the galaxy. I'd known about the lab, and had expected it to be destroyed, so finding it intact was pleasant.

Once my ship had began orbiting this world, I'd also discovered that the Wraith had found both the planet and the laboratory, my ship had detected the Wraith life signs, and because of the lack of jamming I'd had the Wraith beamed up, turning them into energy, but I hadn't rematerialised them. So they were now dead since their patterns could only be stored for so long before they broke down.

While getting rid of the Wraith had been the easy part, things rapidly became more awkward for me when the Earth ship _Daedalus_ , dropped out of hyperspace. The man in charge of that vessel, one Colonel Caldwell, claimed that he'd be sent to explore the base, but them turning up not long after my ship had arrived in system was no matter of chance.

They'd followed me here, of that I was sure, one of their people on Atlantis must have found out what records I'd been accessing and they'd decided to come and find out what had my interest. I didn't blame them, the whole point of the Atlantis expedition had been gather Ancient tech, and because of me the expedition had been a failure.

However given that they had Ancient tech back on Earth it seemed somewhat odd that any of the Tauri were even in this galaxy. Their presence here must be somehow politically motivated. Perhaps the IOA wanted to maintain a presence in this galaxy for some reason, and they were considering this lab as a base. It was rather large, and could serve that purpose.

When I'd beamed down I'd found a Tauri recon team already here, and soon introductions were made.

"I'm Major Anne Teldy" said the leader of the team. "This is Sgt. Mehra, Dr. Porter, and Captain Vega".

They all saluted me.

"I guess you're in charge down here" the Major said next "I'm not sure. Ship captains are equivalent to the rank of colonel, but you're not exactly air force".

Yes that could be a little confusing. Tauri space ships had colonel's commanding them which made them the equal of captains, but I wasn't part of any military, at least not any more, so I didn't exactly line up with their chain of command.

"Why don't we take joint command of the mission" I said to the woman.

There was a moment of silence.

"You may have notice that my team is a bunch of girls" the air force officer then said

This had gotten my attention, and just for fun I used one of my near-ascended powers, I could use a few of them thanks to my lessons and time spent in the Cloister, to stimulate the nerve endings of these women so they felt waves of pleasure running through their bodies. Which might seem like a wrong thing to do someone without their consent, but given that this team had been sent to spy on me I didn't feel bad about it.

"My bodyguard is a girl" I said while gesturing to Cameron.

There was another moment of silence.

"Shall we take a look around?" asked the Major.

(Line Break)

 **Vohl. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"He's mine," Captain Alicia Vega whispered to other women.

The two women kept their voices down, so as not to be overheard.

"I saw him first," Sgt. Mehra argued back.

Of she hadn't since they'd all met Captain Gothic at the same time.

"You both cool it. If the rumors I've heard are true then Captain Gothic has an entire crew of women he can sleep with" Captain Vega stated "So I don't think he has any time for us".

There were lots of rumours about Captain Gothic, about how he was from another universe, as crazy as that sounded, about he command an Ancient warship that had been upgraded with Asgard tech, making it the most power vessel in the known universe, and that he powers like those some of Ancients were suppose to possess. There were also stories about his all female crew, that was made of very attractive women.

The four women kept their mouths shut for a while as the the group looked around the large Ancient lab. By the looks of things it would indeed make a suitable base for the Tauri in this galaxy, but before Caldwell could start beaming down techs and science types to study the place he wanted every room fully explored in order to make sure it was safe.

Gothic led them to a computer terminal and brought up some sort of information. It was clear that he wished to find out what the Wraith had been doing here.

"Seeing as how none of us can read Wraith I guess we'll have to upload the data and take it with us" stated Alison Porter.

Gothic smiled at her.

"Actually I understand Wraith" he said "The logs says that the Wraith here were experimenting with humans that were brought here from the inhabited planet in this system. They weren't always doing this, the lab has been shut down for centuries at a time. The Wraith must only use it when culling.

Eager to learn more Alison Porter moved closer to the Jumper.

"What else does it say?" she asked.

(Line Break)

 **Vohl. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"Stasis pods," I muttered.

I walked up and down the corridor as I began scanning the pods with my omni-tool. I quickly discovered what had become of at least some the humans who'd been brought to this lab by the Wraith. I examined the scans of the creatures created by wraith experiments.

Had it not been for the fact that Michael, the Wraith/human hybrid, had never been created I might think that this was one of his labs. However in this time line the Atlantis expedition doctors never experimented on Michael like they did in canon.

It was pretty clear to me now that as a Wraith the one called Micheal must have worked in this lab as one of the things the Wraith here had been doing over the centuries was mixing Human and Wraith DNA. Possibly this was related to the research a lone Wraith had done which resulted in people like Teyla being about to sense the Wraith.

"No don't touch that," I told Alison Porter as I turned to see her messing with the main control console.

Unlike me she couldn't read Wraith and I was sure she'd meant to do anything bad, but it was too late to stop her now as the stasis pods shut down while their doors all opened. Blood curdling howls and screams came from the creatures that emerged. Obviously the Wraith hadn't want their experiments discovered by others so they'd booby trapped the console to release his creations on whoever tried to retrieve the data about them.

The creatures all began to rush us at once, and I could see there were dozens of them

With a wave of telekinesis, another trick I'd picked up, I pushed all of the lab creations back against the wall and raised a powerful biotic shield in front of us so the creatures couldn't reach us.

"What the hell is going on," I heard some yell.

"This shouldn't take long," I said myself.

Biotic barriers were one way so I was able to use my particle magnum to blast the creations. Not long after I was done the others joined us.

"Let's get some samples" I said to Cameron "I'm sure one of the Asgard on board the ship will want to study them".

Alison Porter was very happy that I had saved her life, and her smile let me know that I might be getting a thank you later. Assuming I hadn't moved on by then. Which I planned to do very soon as I didn't like the idea of the Tauri trying to take even further advantage of my generosity.

With that in mind I quickly collected the genetic samples I desired and got back to work. I wanted to check out this lab/base, get some scans, download its database and then leave.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"So we can detect the Genii tunnels?" I asked Seven.

She was currently at what passed for a science station on this ship, and she was using our sophisticated scanners to explore the true extent of the Genii civilisation, give sheer numbers and sizes of the tunnels it was clear that the humans of this world had been working on their bunkers for many generations.

However the tunnels and bunkers didn't concern me. If I recalled correctly the Genii had only piece of advanced technology that was worth taking, and that was sort of Wraith device which I could obtain elsewhere, they also had any empty ZPM, but I had no interest in that either.

No my reason for being here was that the Genii would keep working on their nuclear weapons even without a working Stargate, and even if the Wraith were wiped from existence the didn't mean the Genii were going to dismantle their nukes.

I suspected that had the Genii been able to nuke all the Wraith as they slept, which was unlikely, that they would have then used their WMDs to impose their will on other planets. While I couldn't prove this I simply wasn't willing to risk it.

"Lock onto their Stargate and beam it up" I ordered.

My order was carried out in mere seconds, and I was pleased by this. I'd been intending to remove this Stargate from the Genii world for some time, I just hadn't gotten around to it because I'd not been in any rush.

"Now that's done I'll take us back to Atlantis" I declared "We still have some repair work to get done".

A moment later the ship jumped into hyperspace. Leaving another job well done.

(Line Break)

 **Aurora-class warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"They have a lot of nerve" commented Miranda Lawson.

She was referring to the space nomads known as the travellers. One of their ships had recently come to Atlantis had made a request of both me and the Ancients. They badly needed knew ships as despite their efforts at population control they simply didn't have enough room. Which made me wonder how crowded their ships had been since gaining a three kilometre long warship that could carry hundreds apparantly hadn't made much of a difference to the Travellers.

As to why this request was frowned upon by Miranda, that was because while I'd ventured on board one of their ships as emissary, they'd kidnapped me, out of desperation rather than any malice. And while I'd taken control of the situation, none of my girls were so forgiving about it as I was. Looking back it was surprising that no one had started shooting.

"They are offering an alliance and to share information" I pointed out "And that information could be valuable when it comes to hunting down the remaining Wraith".

I didn't have the means to build new ships, but if I could supply enough raw materials and some parts then the Ancients could as all city-ships had some industrial capacity, it was just that Atlantis was focused more on science than building stuff. Still they should be able to manage to build a few vessels that were much like Asuran cruisers.

The Ancients wouldn't give the Travellers their best tech, but all the space nomads needed were the ships and spare parts, then they could add their own tech to the vessels. Basically they'd be getting hull with life support and maybe engines.

"We shouldn't judge all the Travellers on the actions of a few officers on one ship" I said to Miranda "Besides its really up the Ancients. We'd just be supplying a few odds and ends. Which as of yet I haven't actually agreed to".

And it was unlikely I would since I had other matters to deal with. There was nothing stopping the Travellers from settling on planets now that the Wraith weren't a threat, and they could build a decent civilisation if they do wished.

Of course there were still hostile aliens out there so the Travellers had good reasons for wanting to increase the size of their ship. However that didn't mean I had to help them do that. Really if anyone was duty bound to help it was the Ancients. After all they were the reason why the Wraith existed, and it was the Wraith who made the Travellers the nomads who they are now.

"What about the Earth group" Miranda asked next as she moved from station to station on the bridge checking over readings "You've been generous with them, very much so, and it's clear that they aren't going to leave us alone".

This was true, they had been getting under foot, and given my plans for the future I was going to need to employ a firmer hand with them. I would need their cooperation, however soon they might find themselves becoming far less important to me.

I wondered if my change in attitude towards them had something to with my treatment. Perhaps I could better understand the larger scheme of things, and how that one world didn't matter much when their were entire galaxies that could use my help.

"I've given the Tauri enough" I said to Miranda "It's time we focus on other matters".

Before this could be discussed further an O'Neill class ship appeared in the system, and the next thing I knew I was being hailed by Commander Thor.


	24. Chapter 24

**Author Note**

Honir is part of Norse mythology, and therefore could be a member of the Asgard race, however he is not a Stargate character. I made him up since there's only a few Asgard ever seen on screen and I've used nearly all of them already.

 **Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis**

 **Part 24**

 **Orilla.** Othala Galaxy

Penegal, a very high ranking member of the Asgard race had requested to speak with me, and once more Thor had towed my ship across galaxies in a matter of hours, which was a speed my vessel could not manage by itself, even when using the ZPM.

While meeting with Penegal was the main reason why I was here, I had taken the chance to enquire about making use of an Asgard shipyard so as to have a second docking bay installed on my ship so I could carry around some fighter craft.

I had plans for modified death gliders which could be controlled by my AI Cortana over a subspace link, like those attack drones seen in season of Stargate Destiny. Of course I'd have to find a way to work around anyone jamming the link, but I was sure Seven of Nine would think of something.

The Asgard had agreed to this, and they'd agreed to taking a couple of Puddle Jumpers in payment for their aid. Mostly I just wanted to free up some room in the docking pay that I, and I could always get new Puddle Jumpers from the city-ship known as the tower.

Now I sat waiting in an office Penegal's office, or at least I assumed it to be his, it was clearly Asgard in design, and the view of the flying city was amazing, but the space lacked any personal touches so I was unsure it actually belonged to anyone, or it was just a meeting place for VIPs.

As it turned out I wasn't kept waiting for long as the alien I was suppose to be met with, soon appeared along with a large chair which he, or she, or it, didn't get up from.

"Greetings Captain Gothic" said the alien "I am Penegal, a member of the Asgard High Council".

We'd met once before, but back then this alien had been one of many all sitting above me, as if in judgement so it was fair of Penegal to assume that I wouldn't recognise him on sight. Also I didn't fail to notice how different this setting was to the last time we had met. I was no longer being looked down upon, this was more of a meeting between equals.

"On behalf of my people I wish to thank for your efforts" Penegal was now saying "We have been somewhat successful in solving our cloning problem, our solution is not a permanent one, however it will buy us time to find a true solution".

This was wonderful news.

"I'm glad to hear that" I said.

Penegal nodded his head.

"Your efforts on our behalf will not go unrewarded" I was told "As soon as you give permission a team of Asgard will beam on board your ship and begin the process of upgrading your vessel with several new technologies. Including our most advance weapon. I hope you will see the sharing of this technology as a sign of trust between your group and the Asgard race".

Given the sheer amount of knowledge and technology I'd shared with the Asgard I was sure that they say the installation of their technology on my ship as an investment that would later pay off. And they were right as with improved engines I could venture to more worlds and find more things to share.

"The Council is however concerned about some of your actions" Penegal was now saying "Not all members of the Council believe that the people of Earth are ready for the power and responsibility that comes with being one of the Great Races".

I'd researched the four Great Races for my book as one of those races had been the Ancients, the other being the Nox, the Furling and of course the Asgard. Out of those four only the Asgard had any real presence in this part of the universe, the Nox were pretty much in hiding, no one knew where the Furlings had gotten off too, and as for the Ancients, those that were left on this lower level of existence, were rebuilding as best they could on Atlantis.

Back in the day, when those races had been at the height of their power they'd formed an alliance, and pretty much took care of things in this part of the universe. They traded knowledge and worked together as sort of a United Nations of the stars.

Humanity, the Tauri to be precise, were on the way to become the 5th race, only this was a process that could take some time. Earth as it was now simply wasn't ready to take on what could be called the The Mantle of Responsibility, as it was called in the Halo verse, to put it simply the Mantle was the obligation of the most evolutionarily advanced beings to serve as stewards to all life forms of lesser capability which fell under their domain.

Currently the Asgard carried this mantle, they'd done the best they could while fighting the Replicators and trying to stave off their genetic problems, now that those issue were behind them, at least for the most part, perhaps they could do more.

However even when limited to the galaxies of this local groups, which included the Milky Way, Ida, Pegasus and other galaxies, there was a lot of space to look after. The Asgard couldn't do it alone, and the Ancients didn't have the number. Humans would have to pick up the slack.

"Even with the technology of the Ancients, the Tauri are not ready to take over stewardship of the galaxy" I said to the council member "But there are human civilizations out there, that are both more advanced and more united that Earth, as well many who are more primitive, but could still be unified under a single banner".

I'd finally decided to create that banner.

"And I have a plan to unify them, and I could use your help" I was now saying "Humans could become the 5th race, but they will need the Asgard to help them get there".

I went on to my explain my plan as best I could.

(Line Break)

 **Orilla. Othala galaxy**

The sight of the shipyard on the Asgard homeworld was pretty impressive, made more so by the flying city in the background. Also seeing the ship floating in the air while the engines were powered down and with no visible means of support, say like a tractor beam, was very cool.

This was the impression of one Tali'Zorah as she watched the Aurora-class battleship _Thunderchild,_ a name taken from some old Earth book. Not the best name in her opinion, but it was better than just calling it the ship, and the ship did desverise a name now that it was being upgraded yet again with superior technology

"Greetings" said a voice.

Tali turned to see that one of the small grey aliens called the Asgard was slowly making its way over to her.

"I am Honir" said the alien as it bowed slightly in her direction "An Ambassador from the Asgard High Council".,

Tali gave the alien a short bow in return.

"I'm Tali'Zorah Vas Thunderchild" she then said.

Well it wasn't any worse than being called Tali'Zorah vas Voyager, or Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, humans never seemed to be able to give their ships proper names.

"Your city is very impressive" said Tali "I hope I can get a closer look at your shipyard".

Miss Zorah spent a moment wondering if her people would ever achieve such wonders, and she reminded herself that.

"It may be possible to arrange a tour" Honir said "For now I have been sent to inform you of the upgrades we are installing. Since you are Chief Engineer of the Thunderchild the Council belive you should have all the details concerning the technology".

Honir handed Tali a computer tablet, it was a device that seemed to be of Ancient make, the Asgard had created it to interface with the computers used on Ancient vessels.

Tali quickly read through the offered information and discovered that an Asgard made neutrino-ion generator would soon be installed on the ship. A neutrino-ion generator didn't quite much to a ZPM, however a ZPM was pretty much a battery while the neutrino-ion generator would supply a fixed amount of power as long as it was in working order. Meaning the the ZPM could be saved for times when the Thunderchild needed to be at its best.

"You're giving us a plasma beam weapon?" Tali asked.

She'd heard Gothic mention that weapon, but he'd indicated that the Asgard wouldn't have finished work on them for another year. They must be offering some sort of prototype version, and they must have developed the weapon more quickly. Possible due to Gothic warning them about the sheer power of Ori made vessels.

"Correct" said Honir "And while I do not comprehend the science behind this new technology I do know that unlike most ship-based energy weapon systems, which are designed to fire individual pulses of energy, our new plasma beam weapons emits a narrow, high-intensity beam of superheated plasma. These beams are capable of overloading and penetrating even the most advanced shields and burning through the hulls and internal structures of an enemy vessel with comparative ease, causing heavy damage".

What none of them knew was that Asgard plasma beam weapons were the only known weapons capable of penetrating the shields of Ori warships, being able to destroy such vessels when entire fleets worth of ships with other kinds of weapons failed to do any noticeable damage.

"Giving you a prototype version of this weapon is a great act of trust by my people" said the little grey dude.

Tali read on some more and discovered that the prototype plasma beam weapon was an energy hungry thing. Which explained in part why the Asgard also needed to install a generator. For maximum power shots the ZPM would even be required.

"Looks like I have a lot of reading to do" Tali said, knowing that she would need to learn about the new systems before they could be repaired and maintained "I might need a rain check on that tour".

The small alien nodded.

"I will give you some time to go over the data, and sound the council approve of me giving you a tour I will ensure that our weather control systems are set to give us a sunny day" said Honir.

Rather than explain what rain check actually meant Tali just made her farewells and headed back to the room she'd been given for her stay on this planet.

(Line Break)

 **City-Ship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

I had once more returned to the city-ship that I knew only as the Tower, and this time I intended to stay for a while. I'd already discussed the matter with elders of the villages, and in exchange for a generous amount of supplies, mostly building materials so that a proper town could be constructed, they had agreed to turn over the city-ship to me.

They didn't need it for defence against the Wraith, and only a few nobles, most of which were now locked up, could use its systems in any case. Also it could make them a target for those unknown hostile aliens who seemed to be attacking any signs of advanced technology that they could find.

As to why I wanted this city-ship, that was because I intended to fly it to the Milky Way and to use it as a capital city of what I planned to call the Confederation of Planets, I would have gone with Confederation of Worlds, but then it could called C.O.W for short. Which didn't sound very good.

The plan was for each world in the Confederation to remain mostly independent while contributing what resources they could to the capital, and those resources would be used to aid those in the Confederation who needed aid. For example if one world had a plentiful harvest, the extra food could be stored away and then given to people who suffered a bad harvest.

I'd decided to call the city-ship, Annwn. Which was the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Ruled by Arawn (or, in Arthurian literature, by Gwyn ap Nudd), it was essentially a world of delights and eternal youth where disease was absent and food was ever-abundant. It became identified with the Christian afterlife in paradise. I'd chosen the name mostly because I was Welsh, and because the other city-ships also had cool names.

Also it would be suitable as a name because the city-ship would provide medical care and give out food to all those who visit it. At least for as long as I was around. Once I'd left the Confederation would need to tend to itself. As such I couldn't just go around handing out supplies all the time. The worlds within the Confederation would have to learn how to look after each other.

I even had plans for opening schools here in this city-ship so that the humans who'd been forced to remain ignorant because of Goa'uld rule, would be able to catch up with their more advanced cousins on other worlds. The more advanced worlds would supply the teachers, and this way the more well educated humans wouldn't have to travel to different worlds in order to spread knowledge. They could just come to Annwn, and eager students would seek them out.

As I wandered the halls of this city-ship I could neither hear nor see the work going on, but I knew what was happening. Asgard engineers were repairing the city-ship so that it could be flown to the Milky Way, this would take much time effort, but it was worth for the little grey guys as they would learn more about Ancient tech.

I'd already selected a site for my city-ship to land once we reached the Milky Way, a world also called Annwn, it was populated by Celts and had one been ruled by a Goa'uld. I'd not originally intended to go there, but it made sense to have the city-ship of Annwn to settle on the planet Annwn, otherwise we'd have people going to the planet Annwn while looking for the city-ship which would be somewhere else. Best to nip that confusing situation in the bud.

The Asgard had agreed to tow the city-ship the Milky Way in exchange for having a permanent embassy within the city-ship. They were supporting my plan, but I was sure that they wanted to keep an eye on me in case I began a tyrant. Plus I had keep them updated with everything the Confederation did, and give them access to any new technology we found in that galaxy. There could still be a few bits of undiscovered Ancient tech scattered about that part of the universe.

Once the city-ship was set up in the Milky Way Galaxy I would park it on that planet, and remain there for awhile. The Ancients could look after Pegasus, with the help of the Asgard and human allies. However someone needed to sort out of the mess that was the Milky Way, and since I had nothing better to do for the next eight and a half years it might as well be me.

If my help was needed in the Pegasus galaxy then I could use my recently upgraded warship to traverse the space between the two galaxies in a matter of hours, it was so good to have a ZPM powered warship with so many Asgard upgrades.

I was intending to sort things out so that the humans of the Milky Way galaxy could help themselves, I was planning to set up an interstellar government made up human nations. Once I was set up I would contact groups such as the Free Jaffa Nation, which was currently led by a man called Garrak, the International Oversight Advisory (Tau'ri) Joint Ruling Council (Langarans) the Orban Elders, in order to set up Alliances. This groups were unlikely to join the Confederation, but I would require their acknowledgment and political support.

Also worlds like Hebridan, Tegalus, Pangar and Vyus, should be contacted as soon as possible, as even if they didn't join the Confederation then they might at least ally with it. Also it would be important to set up trades deals and to exchange information.

I was setting up the Confederation mostly to counter the Lucian Alliance, who right now were the closest things humanity had to an interstellar society, and that was actually a very bad thing.

Following the collapse of the Goa'uld regime, much of their resources and technology fell into the hands of the humans whom they oppressed for so many generations. Some of these humans banded together to form the Lucian Alliance, an organization comparable to the Mafia, only on a galactic scale.

The fact that the Lucian Alliance had managed to form a coherent group made them rather unique among the scattered humans in the Milky Way, but this alliance was not without its weaknesses. As its ranks are comprised largely of mercenaries, smugglers, and other criminals, its leadership is tenuous at best, with much infighting within the ranks. Members live dangerous lives, prone to being killed for failure, or simply when a rival desires their territory (in this respect, they were much like the Goa'uld). The Alliance rules with fear and intimidation, and punish defiance with swift retribution.

The Lucian Alliance was headed by a single leader, who divided responsibility, territory, and resources among his "Seconds." According to information I'd obtained from the SGC there were about 20 such Seconds who oversee operations including smuggling, extortion, racketeering, and trafficking in kassa, which was a corn-like grain with addictive properties.

More worrying than any of that the Alliance controlled a sizable armada of Goa'uld vessels, including Ha'taks, Al'kesh bombers, Death Gliders, and Tel'taks. They also had spies all over the Milky Way. Those kind of resources made them a threat, especially to the Tau'ri and the newly formed Jaffa government.

And it was pretty much the only kind of interstellar power which humans belonged to, and that simply couldn't be allowed. The Milky Way needed a proper government, one that was interested in the needs of its people, tha and worked to protect people, not to exploit them. And I would provide that organisation.

(Line Break)

 **Annwn. Pegasus Galaxy.**

Rather than find her working on repairing the city-ship, so that we could fly into the Milky Way, I found Seven in one of this city-ship's labs, this part of the might vessel had already been repaired, and from here Seven could access the Ancient database.

As for Seven herself she was exploring her sexuality, and had began dressing even more strangely, and for some reason now seemed to be favouring very high heels on her shoes, as well as different types of collars which she swapped around, but this was no time to discuss that matter as the cyborg had found something of great importance.

"This city-ships contains information on the Ancient vessel called Destiny" Seven told me "A subject in which our own files can be found lacking".

Well even with my more advanced mind and the Asgard memory stone there was only so much I could recall. I'd never had much interest in Stargate Universe and the show hadn't lasted long. I'd very early on dismissed the idea of every reaching Destiny, and that hadn't changed.

"Destiny is a ship made by Ancients, the Alterrans, which was constructed and launched more than fifty million years ago from Earth" Seven informed me "The Ancients launched several automated ships prior to Destiny, each with the purpose of constructing and seeding Stargates throughout the numerous galaxies they crossed, with Destiny itself planned to follow in their path to explore those planets".

This much I knew, and again I was impressed by how long lasting Ancient technology was. That Destiny still flew was amazing.

"If my calculations are correct then Destiny has traversed at least 38 different galaxies" Seven said "And seems to have no overall destination".

She had more to say.

"The Ancients initially planned to wait until the ship reached a sufficient distance from Earth before boarding it. However, because of other endeavors, like ascension, and possible because of the plague, they never followed through on the plan. Because of this, _Destiny_ has continued on a pre-programmed path on its journey throughout the universe".

Again these were things I already knew.

"However I have discovered why they began this project" Seven said next "Not long after the creation of the Stargates, the Ancients discovered a pattern in what is called cosmic microwave background radiation; recognizing that the pattern could not have been natural in origin, the Ancients concluded that its presence suggested an order to the universe never thought possible".

I had to stop her at this point.

"What the hell is cosmic background radiation?" I asked.

I didn't think I'd ever heard that term before.

"It is residual radiation leftover from the early stages of the development of the universe following The Big Bang" she said before carrying on "The message, assuming that is what it is, was fragmented and could not be recovered. To that end, they devoted the efforts of an entire generation to the construction of _Destiny_ , the purpose of which was to find and reassemble the fragments, completing the message".

Now he she had my interest.

"So Destiny is out there trying to patch together a message from the beginning of the universe, which indicates that there was an intelligence around at the start of all things" I summarized.

If there was a intelligence that far back it would unlike anything we'd seen before, it couldn't be organic because organic life took a long time to create, and it couldn't be what we'd think of as artificial life, because that always started off as machines that were the product of organic beings trying to make existence easier for themselves.

Even ascend beings were organic once, so any intelligence that old would either have to be from an another much older universe, or it could be something totally beyond our understanding. It might even be what some people refer to as God.

"Automated ships were sent ahead of _Destiny_ to explore the universe, seeding Stargates along their path" Seven told me "It was their intention to further their knowledge of the Universe, but they abandoned the project as they started researching into ascension, and the creation of city-ships".

I wondered where Seven was going with all of this.

"Over its long journey, _Destiny_ sustained significant damage" she was now saying "Though some of the damage is simply neglect, as the ship has been left unmanned far longer than intended, battle damage will also be something we will need to repair".

At this point I had to speak.

"You want to go to Destiny" I said.

I'd neglected the idea due to its impractically and lack of benefits, but with this new information I was reconsidering the notion.

"Any message sent by the an intelligence as old as this universe is worth hearing" said Seven "It might provide clues to how the universe was made. If we can discover that, then we might learn many other things".

I think I understood what she wanted to go after this message.

"You think it might have something to do with the meaning of life" I realised "That the message might explain why this universe, and other universes like it, exist".

Seven nodded, and I began to consider what it would take to actually reach Destiny. We didn't know where it was so we couldn't fly after it in my ship, which wasn't as crazy as it sounded since Destiny hadn't been travelling in a straight line, it had been going from galaxy to galaxy, using a means of FTL than was much slower than my ship's hyperdrive, and it was always quicker to go from A to B. However for that to work we'd know exactly where Destiny was. Given the distances involved and the sheer size of the universe tracking it down with scanners would so near as to impossible as to not be worth trying.

"Well if we went there we wouldn't be trapped" I said, thinking out loud "We can gain access to the Space Dock via the Cosmic Warehouse, and the Space Dock is physically here in the Pegasus Galaxy so we'd just need to keep my ship stored there".

The tricky part would be getting to the Destiny as that would require more power than even I could calculate. In the show they had to use a planet with a naquadria core, in order to channel enough energy to the Stargate, of course we had technologies from different universe and a city-ship with ZPMs, so we might be able to use a method to reach Destiny that didn't destroy whole planets.

"It could be some time before I finish my research" Seven told me "And I would have to construct a base in the Milky Way on an inhabited planet, to dial from. We can use this city-ship in case the energies involved went out of control".

She was right to be concern as an exploding Stargate could render a planet lifeless, and that could happen in trying to reach Destiny due the sheer amount of power required. As such it wasn't something you wanted to do on a world that was home to people.

"So you're thinking that while I set up this Confederation of Planets you can work on a Destiny project" I was now saying "And when I'm ready to hand the whole thing over to elected leaders we can spend the rest of this Jump on Destiny trying to figure out what this intelligence as old as time is trying to tell people".

Again Seven nodded.

"You would need to build a team of people who are willing to risk the trip" Seven said "A few Asgard scientists, the best and brightest humans from across the galaxies, perhaps even a Tok'ra agent, and of course people to ensure our protection".

For sure that asshat Nicholas Rush wasn't getting on to the Destiny. If the Tauri found out about this they'd either try to fill the team with their people or make their own attempt to reach Destiny. And if Destiny was mentioned in the database of this city-ship then it would be in the database of their city-ship too.

"Do you think you could create a virus of some kind which could delete all the information about Destiny from an Ancient database?" I asked Seven "We don't want anyone else chasing after Destiny, not if it's as important as it seems to be".

She considered this.

"That it possible" she said "When I have opportunity I will begin looking into the possibility".

Given how much I'd changed the time line the people of Earth might never even try to reach Destiny, but if I was going there I didn't want to be followed. If any of the Tau'ri ever stepped foot on Destiny, then it would be on my terms.

Which meant that I'd have to deal with the Lucian Alliance as well, but that organisation was still young at this point in the time line and as such I should be able to destroy it. Of course to do that I'd need to set up the Confederation, and that meant getting back to work. This city-ship needed a lot of work.


	25. Chapter 25

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis**

 **Part 25**

 **Aurora-class Warship. Pegasus Galaxy.**

"Are you sure about this" I asked Seven of Nine.

We'd already come to this planet once in order to remove the Stargate, which while currently not working would be switched back on in the future. I hadn't wanted to risk letting the Genii use their nukes on other worlds so it had been important to remove the Gate. Also this would prevent them from restoring the Genii spy network, which could also be a danger to the people of this galaxy.

That really should have been the end of my involvement with the Genii, and I had intended it to be. Only Seven of Nine, who'd again gotten distracted from the work of fixing up the city-ship, had requested that we return to this planet. I'd decided to indulge her as I did enjoy flying around in my super advanced spaceship.

"I am" said Seven of Nine "While it is empty, the ZPM currently in possession of the Genii could be vital to my research".

While I'd known about the depleted ZPM for some time I'd not considered it worth going after and I'd failed to mention its existence. However Seven had access to my files, which mentioned everything I could remember about this universe that was the least bit important. Thanks to my upgraded mind I was now able to remember things in more detail so recently I'd added to these files.

As for the depleted ZPM, it had been filed away in the Genii archives for hundreds of years. In the show a Genii called Ladon Radim used it in his _coup d'etat,_ as part of a scheme to capture Lt. Colonel John Sheppard and a large strike team, which he knew would be enough to bring Cowen out in the open. It was presumably destroyed in the nuclear explosion which killed Cowen and his most loyal men.

However that hadn't happened in this time line, and while something similar might happen in the future that wasn't my concern since the Genii could no longer leave their homeworld. And if they wanted to kill each other that was their business.

It would be centuries until they developed some sort of space travel, assuming that they didn't destroy themselves, by then many other human worlds would have advanced making the Genii less of a threat to the galaxy. Also it could be hoped that the Ancients would have matters in that galaxy under some sort of control.

Thinking further on the matter of the depleted ZPM, it made sense that Seven would want it as while we had a few full ZPMs and ways of producing vast amount of energy the ZPMs, if used incorrectly, or perhaps correctly, could be used as bombs that were capable of destroying chunks of whole solar systems.

When I ventured to the Warhammer 40k verse, and one day I would as a final Jump, I might need that level of fire power. As such we couldn't afford to damage any of the ZPMs we already had doing tests, an empty ZPM could be taken apart without the loss of anything of value.

Plus this wasn't exactly going to take a lot of effort. The work on the city-ship was still going on, the Asgard could handle it, and since I was heading for the Milky Way soon, and would be very busy once I arrived, it made sense to deal with matters in this galaxy now rather than later.

"I can not detect the depleted ZPM" Seven informed me "I have scanned the Genii bunkers and there is a central location which we can not scan completely due to low levels of radiation and some form of shielding".

That was most likely where the ZPM was being kept. The Genii scientists would keep the things they studied in some sort of secure place near their labs, which were currently being used for the production of nuclear weapons. Much like Earth's Manhattan project.

This would explain the shielding, and I recalled that the Tauri expedition to Atlantis would have recommended to the Genii to increase the protection they were using against the radiation produced by their experiments. If they'd listened then I didn't think they'd been successful in perfecting their shielding, but it was enough to help block our transporters.

"Very well" I said, while getting up from my command chair "We'll need a plan of attack".

Cameron joined Seven and I as we studied the layout of the Genii bunkers. While we might not be able to beam directly into some sections, we had gotten some decent scans of the underground society.

Really it made no sense that the Wraith hadn't been able to detect the complex. Sure their scanners were primitive compared to mine, but they did have sensors. Plus the Wraith weren't stupid so really they should have found the Genii bunkers. I figured this was going to be one of those things that I never figured out.

"I can go down there with some of our robots and cleanse the base of all human life" my Terminator offered.

Well that was what Terminators were designed to do. However there was no need to go down there and kill a whole bunch of people. They were no threat to me, and since many Genii spent their whole lives down in the bunkers, then there could be children and elderly people living underground, assuming the radiation allowed anyone to have children or to grow old.

Normally we wouldn't require the bots when dealing with some primitive humans who had no weapons more advanced than the Tauri during world war 2, however it was only Seven, Cameron and I on board the ship as everyone else was busy back at the city-ship.

"No need" I said "Better to beam down gas canisters full of something that will knock everyone out for a few hours. If the most secure sections of the bunkers have their own air supply then Cameron and some of the bots can go in with stun weapons to clear they way".

I had no desire to slaughter science people and since we had kinetic barriers that meant Genii weapons would be useless against us. Explosives could be an issue, but it was highly unlikely that the Genii would risk blowing up their own labs.

"A sound plan" commented Seven of Nine "I will replicate the gas".

That wouldn't take too long, and once the canisters were ready we would beam them down. Then when everyone down in the bunkers was taking a nice long nap we could go in and take what we wanted.

(Line Break)

 **Genii Homeworld. Pegasus Galaxy.**

While the gas we'd sent down had mostly dissipated by this time I was still wearing my armoured suits as the gas smelled rather funky. Cameron didn't need protection from the gas's effect as she didn't breathe, and didn't have a sense of smell, at least not exactly, she did have the means to analyse the air around her so she could detect the gas despite it not being visible.

The Genii did have gas masks as it turned out, however the gas we'd sent down had been so fast acting that very few people had been able to get to the mask. Those that were able to ended up getting stunned by Cameron and the robots we sent down in advance.

I never even saw any action. Which was somewhat of a disappointment as I had all these funky new powers and no one to test them on. Well some of my powers could be tested on people I didn't want to hurt, but I had no desire to risk the wellbeing of someone who was nice to me.

Seven of Nine I'd left back on the ship. She also had the ATA gene now thanks to a quick treatment in the DNA resequer, and I was considering altering her further, perhaps by giving her Miranda Lawson's superior genes, but that could wait. For now it only mattered that she could control the ship.

At this point, Cameron and I began looking through the labs, while we stepped over knocked out scientists. We were ignoring most of the tech due to its sheer primitiveness.

"Forget the computers, leave them be" I ordered "But download any information you can. The Genii have an extensive spy network and some off world bases. I want to know where they are".

While the bases were of no interest to us right now, the Ancients were trying to rebuild both their civilization and to aid the humans of this galaxy, as such they might have use for the information Cameron was currently downloading into her own memory banks via her omni-tool.

I recalled that the Wraith know as Todd spent years in a Genii prison that was on a planet somewhere in this galaxy. He was a very dangerous person, even for a Wraith. Perhaps sometime in the future I should use this information to track down and kill him, or take him prisoner so that I could rip information from his mind.

Having downloaded the information my Terminator now knew everything the Genii did. She couldn't interact with the computer technology of more advanced civilizations because they had firewalls and things like that to prevent an AI from hacking their systems. However while the Genii computer systems were advanced enough to be linked together via some crude version of an Internet, which was highly impressive given their tech level, they had no defences to prevent an AI from accessing the system.

My AI, Cortana could do the same, but I was saving her memory and processing power for more important things.

"Gothic I have found something!" I heard Cameron call out.

Using the data she'd just acquired my Terminator found where the Genii kept all their cool stuff, including the depleted ZPM. She also found a Wraith data device, which was sort of their version of flash drive.

After shooting down a Wraith Dart during a culling, the Genii managed to retrieve this data storage device from it and an interface was created in order to access the device. Which was also impressive given that the Wraith some sort of biotech and the Genii had such basic computers.

The device contained information on the Wraith hive ship the Dart had come from, including the Stargate address of the planet it had landed upon for hibernation as well as data on the planet.

Before I'd met up with them the Atlantis expedition and the Genii conducted a successful raid to download information from the hive ship's data core onto the storage device to learn more about the hive ships and their locations.

The device must have been recovered at some point. Most likely when the Genii took over Atlantis during that large storm. Now it was mine, and the Genii would not be able to recover it a second time.

"There is more Wraith tech here" Cameron reported.

My Terminator then reached into a box and took out what seemed to be a simple pair of googles, however after scanning them with my omni-tool I discovered that they were in fact a piece of Wraith tech as Cameron had just told me.

I'd seen these goggles in action, one had been used by a Wraith who'd hunted Ronan in the main timeline. Although the exact details of how the goggles worked, and how they could be used, were unknown to me, I did know that they were used by Wraith to track runners. They also appear to relay everything seen back to a nearby hive ship, but if this pair could do that the Wraith would have long since have found this place, so they must be broken.

Another bit of tech was a Wraith probe, which was a device used by the Wraith much like how military forces on world used drones. The probe scouted around and sent information back to whatever Wraith had programmed the device.

Once I was settled in the Milky Way in my city-ship I'd no doubt be starting my own version of Stargate Command as while I had information on many worlds within the gate network in that galaxy SGC teams hadn't explored them all.

As such having probes that could fly around gathering information would be of great use. I wouldn't even back engineer the Wraith probe since I had more than enough tech of my own to build such a device and the means to manufacture them in great numbers. But that was something to think on later.

"We can store this stuff in the Cosmic Warehouse" I said to Cameron.

These devices had little use for us. Even the Wraith flash drive contained information that was useless as all the Wraith ships had long since left whatever planet they used to hibernate upon.

Also we had little use for biotech as it we had access to much in the way of Ancient technology, and ways to gather more advanced tech that would be easier to back engineer. However this Wraith would barely take up any room in the Warehouse, and could be traded in the future.

"Let's get out of here" I said next "This gas won't keep everyone out for much longer".

A few moments later Cameron, the heavily armed bots, and I, all disappeared in flash of light.

(Line Break)

 **Annwn. Pegasus Galaxy.**

While the view from the balcony here on the city-ship of Annwn was not as calming as those found on Atlantis, it was still pleasant to sit out here and admire the landscape as well as to enjoy the cool breeze.

"So the Asgard and the Ancients will both have an embassy" I said to Miranda Lawson "The Asgard have promised a mutual defence pact with the Confederation as well".

That the Asgard were supporting me was no surprise as I'd helped them a lot in the past, and they were a nice bunch of people. However I'd been somewhat shocked to find out that the Ancients were doing the same. While their population had grown by quite a bit since they'd returned to Atlantis, most of them were mentally children despite having adult bodies due to having been in stasis since childhood.

Perhaps the Ancients or the Asgard had been able to mentally progress them to adulthood quickly, the little grey dudes could after all upload minds into clone bodies and download info from people's minds, so advancing the Ancient children wouldn't be beyond them.

Not that it mattered to me, what did matter was that thirty Ancients were coming along with my group to the Milky Way. They would help keep the city-ship running while training others to do the same. Which would mean recruiting people smart enough to learn, but that was a problem for later.

I didn't think the Ancients were helping me only to pay me back for the help I'd given them. They must be worried about me having a city-ship of my own, and by setting up an embassy along with giving me some staff, they could keep an eye on me, perhaps even try to influence my actions.

No doubt the Asgard felt the same way, not only would they want to keep an eye on me as I attempted to build a galactic human government. Aside from that I had a habit of finding advanced technology, and the Asgard would not only want to make sure I didn't do something stupid with that tech, they would also desire to get a share of the tech.

Which was fine with me as Asgard support of the Confederation was very important. With their backing the major players in the Milky Way could take me seriously. Asgard support would not only lead to alliances with other powers, it might even led to worlds becoming members.

"So we'll need rooms for them, and an office for their ambassador" I told Miranda "best prepare some space for the Free Jaffa nation ambassador and whomever the Tauri send".

The former Cerberus operative made a note on a data padd while I considered how I'd get the Free Jaffa Nation to send an ambassador. I was sure that the Tauri would send someone as they liked messing about with other people's business, and while that could be annoying, I did need their blessing to set up the Confederation if only so I didn't make them into a dangerous enemy.

"Are you sure that letting them have access to the whole of the city-ship is a good idea?" she then asked.

I understood her concerns.

"Miranda if the either the Asgard or the Ancients were a threat to us we'd know it" I told her "They have more than enough firepower to destroy us".

She just nodded upon hearing that.

"I also want a space put aside for a marketplace" I was now telling the genetically engineered woman "Like the one we saw on the Jaffa planet, I want Annwn to be a centre of commerce, as well as diplomacy".

Which would make security a big issue, as Miranda commented, but there was no point having a capital city that people visit or live in.

"We'll need a security force" I said "Like some sort of police, we can recruit from Confederation worlds".

Assuming anyone actually joined. While the the government I planned wouldn't have much to do with a world's internal affairs those joining would have contribute to the Confederation and many worlds didn't have much to offer other than people so it was important to find uses for those people.

One of my concerns was that I would end with a load of barely populated primitives worlds who would be a drain on my resources as I tried to uplift them to a point were they could be useful to me.

As for the major powers, well they would want to ally with me as that could get them stuff in trade without having to commit much in return. I'd have to be careful not to offer too much as while I did desire allies I didn't want them taking advantage of me. The Tauri had been far too successful in getting tech and resources form me in the past while offering very little in return.

Hopefully I could get a few industrialised worlds to join up and once that happened I could simply pay them to send teachers to my city-ship who would educate the more primitive people's. Spreading knowledge of better methods of stuff like farming, which would be a real help to those people

"We've got security mechs" reminded Miranda "They can handle security, at least in the short term".

Mechs weren't the most reliable, they couldn't handle complex issues as they were governed by a very simple VI, but Miranda was correct that they would work in the short term.

"Alright I'll get to work setting all that up" she said as she left.

As she walked away I checked out her ass, even after so many years together I still couldn't help admiring her rear end.

(Line Break)

 **Annwn. Hyperspace.**

While the city-ship was up to making a journey to the Milky Way galaxy, it didn't hurt that Thor's might O'Neill class ship was keeping pace with us just in case something went wrong. I was grateful for this as the massive void between galaxies was perhaps the worst place in existence to find yourself stranded in.

Because I had the ATA gene naturally as well as an advanced mind, I was flying the ship to the planet Annwn, which didn't really involve much effort as the ship was flying itself for the most part, I was here mostly in case things went wrong.

Of course there were actual Ancients on board, and I could see them working as the control chair was in what would be called Stargate Operations back on Atlantis. I did have a Stargate in this city-ship, having taken one from the Genii, but I was going to have it set up in another part of Annwn.

Because I needed to sit in the chair this meant that from aside from quick trips to the bathroom I had to stay sitting in the control chair, so as to pass the time I reading. Mostly about the myths and legends surrounding the deasended Ancient known to many as Merlin.

This was because the planet I was flying the city-ship to was mentioned in relation to Merlin, who was currently the leader of Atlantis, and during his time on Earth he'd been an important figure as he was now.

"According to the cultural information I got from Doctor Jackson there are two doors to Annwn, at least in legend, one was located at Glastonbury Tor and the other at Lundy Island" I said.

I'd actually been talking to myself, but Cameron, who rarely left my side, thought I was talking to her.

"So are we going to this Lundy Island?" she asked.

Since Merlin had kept a vault Glastonbury Tor it was possible that he'd also kept one somewhere under Lundy Island. I'd have to mention this to Thor and see if he was willing to repeat the mission to Glastonbury Tor. His ship could sit in Earth's orbit undetected while I used the ring transports to enter the vault and loot it of technology.

If there was another long range communication device there I didn't want the Tauri finding out about it, and frankly they'd gotten more than enough from me as it was. As for the Asgard well I'd share the tech with them because they could be trusted with it, and I did need their help.

"In the book I found at the Glastonbury vault, there's a section that mentions that Arthur went to Annwn, where he retrieved thirteen sacred objects" I told Cameron "One of which was the Mantle of Arthur, which we have".

That was the Ancient computer which I'd found in the vault at Glastonbury Tor, I'd forgotten about it, and now it was at the bottom of long list of things that needed to be studied, and back engineered.

"The Mantle of Arthur is actually a computer with an inbuilt device that allows you to phase-cloak" I went on to say "the source material says: whoever was under it could not be seen, and he could see everyone".

But there was more to phase cloaking than that.

"Phase cloak makes you a lot like a ghost" I was now saying "I know we have personal cloaks, but with phase cloak we'd be able to walk through walls and stuff like that".

When I got the chance I'd order Seven to get to work on personal phase cloaks. They would be useful in battle while normal cloaks could be dangerous as while out of phase you didn't need to worry about friendly fire.

Also a phase cloak for my ship would be nice, I didn't have a fleet like others factions did so it was important that I have the most powerful vessel in the Milky Way galaxy.

Plus the Tauri might be getting personal cloaks for their teams in the near future, assuming they made contact with the Sodan, and with those they could spy on even me. So it was important to level the playing field in the arena.

"According to _Preideu Annwfn,_ the Spoils of Annwn, Arthur and several of his knights went to Annwn to retrieve a magical cauldron that was guarded by nine maidens" I said next "That fits in with what the book I found in the Glastonbury vault says".

I then changed the page on the data pad.

"Now I've put together a full list of the treasures" I told Cameron "And they are Dyrnwyn, the Sword of Rhydderch Hael. The Hamper of Gwyddno Garanhir The Horn of Brân Galed. The Chariot of Morgan Mwynfawr. The Halter of Clydno Eiddyn. The Knife of Llawfrodedd the Horseman. The Cauldron of Dyrnwch the Giant. The Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd. The Coat of Padarn Beisrudd. The Crock and Dish of Rhygenydd Ysgolhaig. The Chessboard of Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio. The Mantle of Arthur. The Mantle of Tegau Gold-Breast. Last of all the Stone and Ring of Eluned the Fortunate, which seems to have been added on later".

Cameron tipped her head as she often did when she was considering matters.

"Why is this important?" she asked me.

Actually I wasn't sure. At this point I didn't know if anything else on that list other than the Mantle of Arthur was a piece of advanced technology, or if it even existed at all.

Dyrnwyn, the Sword of Rhydderch Hael was clearly some sort of weapon, and I suspected that The Chariot of Morgan Mwynfawr was some kind of spacecraft and The Chessboard of Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio, was pretty self explanatory, but I could only guess at what everything else on that list could be.

"Well if Arthur did recover all those items and they are in fact technology created by Merlin, then there's a vault at Lundy Islands then it could contain the rest" I told Cameron "Or at least some of the treasures".

Anything like gold or jewels could be handed over to the British government. I'd let Thor's people handle that.

"We'll just have to wait until we land" I said to Cameron

I knew that once the city-ship landed I'd be spending a lot of time within it trying to set up a galactic government that could look after itself once I was gone. Of course that would take a lot of work, and I wanted to do a little more exploring before I ended up spending so much time behind a desk.

But before then I needed to retrace the steps of an earlier adventure so that I could find the Repository of Knowledge as well as the device used by Merlin to virtually create things. Hopefully my brain was now advanced enough to use both of those technologies safely.

If not then lucky for me there were plenty of Asgard around who could suck all of that knowledge out of my mind.


	26. Chapter 26

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis**

 **Part 26**

 **Annwn. Milky Way Galaxy.**

While the journey to this galaxy had been thankfully unadventurous, as hyperspace travel nearly always was, landing the city-ship turned out to be a bit hair raising. City-ship normally landed on water, or on specially prepared landing platforms, and this case the Asgard had provided the needed smooth bit of ground for us.

However while the landing had been simple enough actually going from space to the ground hadn't been so easy for me mentally. While the heat caused by entry into a planet's atmosphere, as well as turbulence, were handled by systems on board the city-ship I'd been connected those systems, and I felt the strain.

Since I knew what horrible thing would happen should those systems fail I'd spent the entire trip down forcing myself to focus on the landing least my imagining of a shield failure somehow cause the shields to somehow go down because of the link between the city-ship and my mind.

Annwn was just a shade smaller than Earth, meaning its gravity was slightly less than that of my homeworld, but not in a way a person could detect with sensitive scientific instruments.

Its surface was covered by a considerable amount of water. Almost ninety percent in fact, with only two continents worthy of the name, each smaller than Australia, with the rest of the landmass, such as it was, made up of island chains.

The landing platform the Asgard had placed was on an island that made one of the larger island chains, the chain was in the northern hemisphere, and close enough to the equator to be considered pleasantly warm without us having to worry about tropical storms and the like.

Also since the Alterans had seeded life in this galaxy, using Earth as a template, which was why you got trees, blue skies and grasslands on so many planets reachable via the Stargate, this planet was habitable by humans. In fact it already had a small human population.

Of course there were mountain ranges, deserts and oceans too, on this world and others, no world that support human life had a single type of biosphere, that was something science fiction so often got wrong.

Okay so you could have planets like Earth that were going through an ice age, but then you could argue that they weren't habitable anymore.

"Everything feels right" I said as the control chair moved to an upright position.

A lot of Ancient technology was mentally controlled, and while city-ships could feed information directly into a person's mind even an 'evolved' human like me wasn't able to full digest everything so I was left with an impression more than anything else.

Part of this was due to how tired I was. Had I been more awake I would have a better understanding of the city-ships state, however if there was anything majorly wrong the Ancients at the controls would be altering me even now, and I was sure that the city-ship would have let me know if there was a major problem.

"I'm going to get some sleep" I told anyone who was listening "Wake me up only if we're in mortal danger".

Once I'd gotten my rest I'd go back to becoming very busy again as before the Confederation could be born I still had a few other matters to deal with.

(Line Break)

 **Annwn. Milky Way Galaxy.**

I was currently sitting in my office in what passed for Stargate Operations within my city-ship. The Stargate, which was a Pegasus model taken from the Genii, sat in a different room that Tali was currently working on security features for.

As for I was trying to make an inventory. Before I invited worlds to ally with or join my Confederation I wanted to find out what kind of assets I could call upon. This could be very important later on.

Inventory.

1 City Ship (twenty puddle jumpers) (several hundred drones)

1 Aurora-class warship (seventeen puddle jumpers (several hundred drones)

1 Modified Wraith Cruiser

1 Delta Flyer

1 Mass Effect shuttle (upgraded with Starfleet tech)

That was as far as I got before Miranda walked to my office. She was carrying a data padd, and I figured that she was hard at work.

"I know you want me to take care of the day to day stuff" she said "But before we invite anyone into the city, there are a few things we need to discuss".

Miranda was good at keeping things organised, she could handle the logistics without my aid, but I was the leader so she needed to run certain things by me.

"We've got more than enough rooms for visiting diplomats" she told me, after sitting down "But since we want to keep people out of the central tower we need to be careful where we place stuff like the markets, the schools, and the hospital".

While the people who would staff those places hadn't even been picked yet I figured that Miranda was right to sort this out now. We didn't want people entering this tower, which was suppose to be the secure part of the city, when they were trying to get to what should be a public area.

"Let's get some coffee before we sort this out" I said.

Thankfully my office had a small replicator so I wouldn't have to wait long for the vital infusion of caffeine.

(Line Break)

 **Merlin's Tomb. Milky Way Galaxy.**

This variant of the Repository of Knowledge, which was located here in Merlin's tomb, did work as the Ancient had promised, and how I'd long suspected that it would work. The device did not in fact contain all the knowledge of the Ancients just that which Merlin had known.

While that was a heck of a lot of info it wasn't more than an advanced human like me could handle, and it still left me with much to learn. Which was good for me as if I'd learned everything there was for a human to learn, well then my life wouldn't be worth living.

What knowledge I had was centred around the technology Merlin had created, and the science required for the technology. I now knew all about phase cloaks, solid holograms, Ancient computer systems, and all about the sangraal. There was more, but it would take some time for my mind to make sense of everything.

I also knew that when the Repository of Knowledge was used in conjunction with a Molecular Construction Device, which I now understood how to use and to build, the device allowed one to visualize a program or a machine, and then create it.

This version of the Repository was interactive, and not only set to download information directly into a mind, but also receive it. Meaning that in theory I could upload knowledge I had and then someone else could have it downloaded into their mind, but normal humans could handle that sort of thing.

It could also encode the DNA and the consciousness of an individual and download it into another person's brain and then return the altered brain to a previous state after a certain amount of time had passed. Of note was that he uploaded mind could in theory take over whomever it was downloaded into, and replace the existing mind.

This technology must be related to whatever tech it was the Asgard use to transfer their minds into clone bodies, and because I had the _Still In There_ perk I could, at least in theory, transfer my mind into a clone body. However since I could gain a new, younger body at the start of every Jump, a body I could modify the DNA of thanks to the tech I had claimed during this Jump, there was little sense taking such a risk.

Using the Repository, which had two rods that slid out at the bottom of the device, a person with an advanced mine could create any object at the molecular level, although this took a great deal of concentration.

In the show Merlin used his Repository to recreate the Sangraal as much as he could and then transferred both his memories and quasi-ascended powers to Dr. Daniel Jackson when he was too weak to continue (even programming a failsafe into this transfer that erased the modifications made to Jackson's mind and body to compensate for the weaknesses of human physiology). The device was then moved aboard an Ori warship and used by Jackson to complete the Sangraal, which was then used to eliminate the Ori in their home galaxy.

My intention was also to use this device, but I would place it within the Cosmic Warehouse, and once inside there I could build my own Sangraal, and to the knowledge I'd obtained I could use to destroy creatures that lived in higher planes of existence.

In time I would be modify the device so that it could destroy beings that lived in other levels of existence, such as many kinds of gods, this would be a very potent weapon when I go to the Warhammer verse as I might even able to use the Sangraal to wipe out the gods of chaos. Assuming that was possible.

An unexpected, but very welcome, bonus was that I now knew how Merlin had been able to use his near-ascended powers to play the role of wizard, including the trick he used to make Baal unable to take. Given that my future would involve meetings with many diplomats I was glad to have this knowledge.

"We need to pack all this up and get back to the ship" I told my team.

My plans were progressing very well, and this greatly pleased me. I was exploiting the hell out of this Jump, and doing so in such a way that hopefully I should be able to handle whatever it was future Jumps threw at me.

(Line Break)

 **Asgard Ship. Earth Orbit.**

Not long after the city-ship had landed on the planet Annwn, and after I'd returned from Merlin's cave, Cameron, Seven of Nine, and I left on Thor's battleship, heading to Earth, a trip which took seconds. Once we'd arrived Seven of Nine had begun using this ship's scanners to search for a vault at Lundy Island.

Before coming here I'd asked Thor to scan the world called Annwn for a vault, and while we'd found one it had been empty. Which wasn't a surprise as the legend spoke of Arthur and his knights coming to Annwn to recover the treasures.

They must have gone through the gate to, recovered the treasures, which were in fact devices that Merlin had either created, like Arthur's mantle, or that he'd stored for safekeeping, like the long-distance communication device that was linked to the Ori controlled galaxy, which was somewhere in this universe.

Lundy Island, or Ynys Wair to use its Welsh name, was the largest island in the Bristol Channel. It lies about 12 miles (or 19 km) off the coast of Devon, England, about a third of the distance across the channel from Devon to South Wales.

According to the data the scanners were getting the island had a resident population of 28 people. Most of which live in and around the village at the south part of the island. There were some signs of tourism, mostly day-trippers, although there was what seemed to be a camp sight with some people staying in it.

It was a good place to hide a vault full of advanced tech as very people even knew the island existed.

"So any sign of another vault?" I asked.

Seven was running yet another scan, as she did I noted that her clothes were more reasonable. Which meant that her bodysuit wasn't so tight and her shoes were more practical. However she still wore a stylish collar, a sign of her submission towards me.

"No Captain" she reported.

Given that I'd soon be the leader of a galactic human government, or at least the attempt at one, I'd need a new title. Nothing too pretentious of course, the Confederation would concern itself with the defense, foreign relations, trade between worlds, and stuff like that, without getting too involved with its member's internal affairs. As such I wouldn't be crowning myself emperor or naming myself president, I'd need a more suitable title.

Perhaps I could call myself the Premier and have each member world selected someone to serve on a council that I could led, and that council would be the group that decided what the Confederation go up to while remaining under my guidance. Then when it was time for me to step down the ruling council could simply chose a new leader from the members of the council.

Although given that the Asgard, Jaffa, and the Tok'ra were all ruled over by a council of some sort I'd have to give me council a different name. Maybe it called it the Confederation Assembly.

I pushed those thoughts out of mind and forced myself to focus on the task at hand. Thankfully with my awesome brain my trail of thought hadn't taken long to get through so not much time had passed since Seven of Nine had last spoke.

"Scan for lepton radiation" I ordered.

Knowledge given to me by Merlin's Repository of Knowledge let me know that Merlin had taken the entire vault out of phase. Alas Merlin had not kept detailed notes on everything he did, or at least hadn't uploaded everything, so I didn't know exactly what was in the vault, but I was now sure that t was there.

"We are detecting low levels of lepton radiation coming from a source deep underground" Thor reported.

I thought about what to do.

"Thor do you have a device that allows people to virtually build things?" I asked.

I was almost certain he did as O'Neill used such a device to build an anti-replicator weapons, but not all models of Asgard ship might carry one. I did have such a device, and it was on Thor's ship since we'd used his vessel, which was still faster than mine, to quickly move around the Milky Way. However that device had no power at the moment.

"This ship has that technology" Thor informed me "Why do you ask?".

I smiled.

"We'll need to be out of phase in order to access the Vault" I explained "So if I build a phase cloak for your ship, we can go out of phase and then beam down into the vault. Once we've emptied the vault, we beam back to the ship, and we just come back out of phase".

Thor blinked at me, which I knew was an emotional response of some sort. I suspected that he was impressed by the cleverness of my plan.

"The Asgard would be most grateful for that technology" he said.

Yes I imagined they would, and if I gave them phase cloaking then they were far less likely to request I had over any of Merlin's treasure. And while phase cloak tech would make the Asgard more powerful it hardly mattered as they could already utterly destroy me whenever they wished.

(Line Break)

 **Lundy Island. Earth.**

I'd been right. There was in fact a vault filled with treasure. Most of which was useless to me as it was just piles of gold, silver with jewelry and gemstones, stuff I could easily get from the replicator, and as such the wealth here would be handed over to the British government like the treasure in Glastonbury Tor had been.

By what means the little grey people would give the wealth to the British government was unknown to me, but I assumed that they had contact with Russell Chapman, who was the representative of for the UK on the IOA, and that he sorted stuff like this out as he had to useful for something.

However there was some advanced technology here. Which I would not be handing over to any government. Only my group as well as the Asgard and the Ancients who even know it the stuff existed. Some tech was just too powerful and dangerous to entrust the likes of the Tauri.

Technically it all belonged to Merlin, who was the leader of Atlantis these days, but he'd never asked for any of it, despite him knowing that I coveted his knowledge and advanced technology. Even when I'd taken an entire city-ship all he'd done was assign a few of his people to help take care of it. As such I assumed that I had his blessing to loot this stuff, but that for some reason he didn't want anyone knowing that.

Unlike other storehouses belonging to Merlin this place was not guarded by a holographic knight, and when I'd pulled the sword from the stone it had just returned the vault to this dimension, bringing it back into phase. Putting the vault out of phase had been the place's only defence, and I could see why Merlin had gone to all that trouble.

The vault had a few of the items that were Merlin inventions, like the device called the Mantle of Arthur.

My attention was drawn to sword I'd pulled from the stone in order to bring down the phase cloak, which had also brought Cameron, Seven and I out of phase at the same time. At first I thought it was just another sword in the stone like the one I'd taken from the planet Camelot back when I'd been looking for Merlin.

The sword I'd found is Glastonbury Tor had been a solid hologram of some sort, and the sword at Camelot had been a physical object made using some sort of advanced metallurgy.

This weapon was different than the others, it wasn't a hologram, or a sword made just from advanced materials, it was sort of device. It was sword, but when I held the weapon in my hand, I knew at once how to trigger some sort of technology inside the blade that made the metal part of the sword glow with a hazy blue light.

I soon tested the sword and found that when energised that the blade could cut through the rock that surrounded us, and the cut area wasn't melted nor it was it even hot. Which meant the glow wasn't caused by some sort of plasma.

This was when my new knowledge told me that this was some sort of power weapons, like those from Warhammer 40k, although Merlin didn't call this technology by that name. What made the sword work was the power field generator concealed within the hilt of the weapon. The rest of the weapon didn't matter so much as it the power field that did all of the work.

Those weapons in the 40K verse were surrounded with a hazy field of bluish energy just as this weapon was. Asided form that they looked like ordinary swords, or whatever weapon it was the power field had been added to.

Power weapons were capable of disrupting the molecular bonds of whatever matter they strike. Which meant that this sword would seem to cut through even the toughest of materials, although I didn't know how effective they would be against personal shields, but thankfully in this universe, outside of my group, that was a rare technology.

My new knowledge would allow me recreate this technology so that I could create more power weapons, but this was of limited use as no one in my group ever used a melee weapon. There wasn't much reason to when we could beam people in space or just vapourise them.

I also knew that Merlin had created a few of these power weapons, and no doubt in this universe Excalibur was one such device.

"According this record" Seven said as she consulted a scroll Merlin must have written centuries ago "This weapon is called the The _Dyrnwyn,_ or White-Hilt"

That was one of the treasures Arthur and his knights were supposed to have recovered from the world known as Annwn, which did have an empty vault, and there hadn't even been a holographic knight defending the place. Although there may have been at one point as there was a stone in that vault which could have held a sword.

This sword had a white hilt, which only supported the idea that is was that legendary weapon. Which was actually rather cool, sure it wasn't Excalibur or Caliburn (the original sword in the stone) but it was still nice to have the weapon.

"I've read of it" I told Seven "In the tales it's a powerful sword belonging to Rhydderch Hael, one of the Three Generous Men of Britain mentioned in the Welsh Triads. When drawn by a worthy or well-born man, the entire blade would blaze with fire".

Which it actually didn't, but I could see how a more primitive people could mistake the power field for some kind of blue coloured flames.

"Rhydderch was never reluctant to hand the weapon to anyone, hence his nickname Hael "the Generous" I finished by saying.

The sword was genelocked as well as having a mentally controlled power field. The genelock meant that you needed the ATA gene to use the weapon. Which would be why Hael never minded people borrowing the sword as it wouldn't work for them unless they also had the ATA gene.

One of the things I knew about Arthur and his knights was that they all had the ATA gene naturally, like Jack O'Neill or John Sheppard, because they were all descended from one or more of the Lanteans who came to Earth when they left Atlantis, which meant they were more 'evolved' than other humans.

Merlin was also able to alter human DNA to 'evolve' them slightly, but he'd not so for the knights of the roundtable.

The same applied to Padarn's coat which perfectly fits any brave man, but will not fit cowards. In this reality it was a suit of armour, one that Merlin had made, like the armour we had, which were modified versions of Vanir environment suits, this armour would adjust to fit the wearer and also it required the ATA gene which Arthur and his knights had possessed.

In terms of appearance the armour looked as if someone had taken the materials used in the outer layer of a Kull warrior's armour, and made into a suit of armour that a medieval knight might wear. Which made sense as the material science behind Kull warrior armour was Ancient rather than Goa'uld.

However it was less clunky that real medieval armour, and I figured that it was a lot more comfortable to wear as well. Plus I would feel less like a dork for wearing it as Merlin had a better sense of taste than I would have given him credit for,

I imagined that this armour could absorb a lot of energy and provide protection from many forms of harm. In fact if the materials were as tough as I suspected (Merlin hadn't recorded everything in his repository so I didn't know for sure) then it would take a power weapon to stab someone who was wearing this suit.

"Do you know why Merlin created these technologies?" enquired Seven of Nine.

As a matter of fact I did.

"Merlin retook human form because he was concerned about the Ori" I started to explain "Everything he did once retaking human form was geared towards defeating them. While the Sangraal was his endgame, and he created the Mantle of Arthur to hide his research, not everything he did was about the Sangraal. He knew that the mortal servants of the Ori would try to convert to humans of this galaxy by force, and maybe the ones in Pegasus too, so that the Ori could feed off their worship. He knew that this would involve a war and so he planned for it".

Merlin helped Arthur to ascend so that Arthur could retake human form when the human slaves of the Ori invaded and lead the fight against them. For some reason Arthur didn't show up when the Ori invaded in the show.

Orlin did take human form however in order to help, but I didn't think he'd been Arthur at any point as I was pretty sure that he'd been an Ancient during his mortal life and not Tauri. Also he wasn't a fighter or a leader.

Something must have gone wrong, something that wasn't mentioned in the cultural database I got from Daniel Jackson or known to Merlin. Arthur was wounded when he was taken to Avalon to ascended so perhaps he died before he could ascended, or maybe he was prevented from taking human form again.

"He actually founded the Knights of the Roundtable as the start of an army to fight the Ori invasion" I told Seven "You can imagine how deadly trained knights with power weapons and advanced armour would be when facing people the Ori drafted into their army".

Which would have made for a way more awesome season ten of Stargate then what we saw on TV. Alas instead of the return of King Arthur, who could have enough near-ascended powers to match the Orici, and some new knights of the roundtable, we got the writers attempting to shoehorn in two people from Farscape into the show.

"Anyway while Merlin was still putting his plans into action Morgan Le Fey turned up and Merlin ended up in stasis" I was now saying "So it's good that I warned the Asgard about the Ori because one day they will invade this galaxy".

The Ori didn't ascend their followers, but the Ancients did allow others into their ranks. I knew this because I'd helped an entire village worth of people ascend, so if the Ori weren't already outnumbered they would one day be and the power they got from their followers wouldn't be enough if the Ancients decided to go kick their non-corporeal backsides.

Assuming of course that someone didn't somehow alert the Ori to the fact that humans lived in this galaxy, which could still happen as there might be more than one of those long-distance communication devices just waiting to be dug up.

"Come on let's look around some more" I said next "We need to gather up all the tech and the scrolls that explain what all this stuff is".

Another of the treasures was a holographic chess set, the board projected the pieces and they were moved via verbal commands. Not exactly useful since I already had holographic technology, so for now it would go in the Cosmic Warehouse until I had a use for it. Perhaps I would return to Merlin as a gesture of friendship.

One of the treasures we were seeking was the chariot belonging to Morgan Mwynfawr ("the Wealthy") was described as a magical vehicle which would quickly reach whatever destination one might wish to go to. This turned out to be a Puddle Jumper, which again made sense as Merlin would understand the technology behind the craft.

What Seven found in the back of the small ship made me wonder if it was the time machine created my Janus. Only it turned it turned out to be something much, much cooler.

"It's a reality drive!" I yelled out.

Like the one on the alternate version of the Daedalus, as seen in the episode Daedalus Variations, this drive was designed to transport matter through something called the Matter bridge to access alternate realities. It was powered by a device that tapped the vast energies of space space providing near Zero Point Module levels of power.

Despite its function of transporting ships to alternate realities, the ship would remain in exactly the same position so I used it now I'd still be in Merlin's vault under Lundy Island, but I'd be an alternate universe, and possible in solid rock if the vault didn't exist there.

A quick look through the ship's log confirmed what I already suspected, and possible did know on some level. This Jumper was the creation of Janus rather than Merlin, and it had been built to reach other dimensions.

Apparently Janus gave up on time travel, and I didn't blame him given how problematic it could be, and he'd began looking for a reality that more suited him. The log didn't mention why the craft was abandoned, and nor did I know how Merlin got his hands on it. But I didn't care as it was mine now.

I also found a note taped to what passed for the windscreen on a Puddle Jumper.

 _This will only take you alternate versions of the Stargate Verse_

It was signed by Jump Chan, so I gathered that she didn't want me using it to reach other science fiction settings, which made sense as that would sort of defeat the purpose of being in a Jump Chain.

"We should move the ship and the other pieces of technology to the city-ship as soon as possible so that I can begin to study them" Seven said to me.

Yes that was a good idea as I didn't even want the Asgard knowing that I had an engine that could reach other realities. Plus I wanted her to make sure it was safe before we tested it, and if possible the drive should be installed on my Aurora-class as taking a warship made more sense since other realities could be filled with some very hostile things.

Still I also didn't want to wait too long before I could check out some alternate realities as they could have tech I hadn't seen before, and in those timelines people long since dead could still be alive. Seven would have to bring this tech to the top of her very big to do pile otherwise I would go totally mad.


	27. Chapter 27

**Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis**

 **Part 27**

 **Annwn. Milky Way Galaxy.**

While no worlds had yet joined the Confederation, aside from this one as the natives of this planet were more than happy to accept my protection as long as I let them live in peace and gave them free stuff, we were already having to deal with a lot of foreign powers.

Somehow news about my city-ship had spread throughout this galaxy very quickly, and ships from several factions were even now in orbit of this planet. While Thor was needed elsewhere another Asgard, Tyr who had worked on the Delta Flyer, had a vessel parked in orbit and he was able to keep the peace.

"We've received confirmation that the Free Jaffa Nation, the Tok'ra and the Tauri, all letting us know that they will be sending representatives" Miranda told me as I looked out of my office, over the Ancients who worked in what passed for Stargate Operations within this city-ship "And we know who those attendees will be. Also we've received confirmation from three of the many worlds that we contacted, the Langarans, Hebridans and Galarans will be sending delegates as well so even if none of them join we'll have a lot of allies".

The Langarans were humans native to the planet Langara. They were divided into three superpowers: Kelowna, Tirania, and the Andari Federation. The three superpowers had undergone a long period of mistrust, until a military alliance between Tirania and the Andari Federation forced Kelowna to design a naquadria bomb.

Thankfully for everyone involved the detonation of the naquadria bomb actually de-escalated tensions between the superpowers, by getting the three nations to come to the negotiating table, eventually agreeing to the creation of a world ruling body.

Having Anubis invade their world helped with this as the Langarans realised that they needed to work together in order to survive, and unless their tech had advanced extremely rapidly over the last couple of years they were doubt eager to acquire the means to defend themselves from future attacks.

I was quite willing to offer that if they joined the Confederation, however if they just wanted an alliance then all they were going to get out of me was knowledge that wouldn't advance them too rapidly. I might offer them better guns as they had the tech to produce such things on mass for their population, but I'd only be giving them better examples of what the already had.

As for the Hebridians, they were humans of ancient Earth origin and were long enslaved by the Goa'uld until the Serrakins came to liberate them, driving the Goa'uld out. The Serrakins shared their technology with the humans and together they built a magnificent civilization, with both races living in harmony on the planet Hebridan.

Or at least that was what they claimed. In truth there was some racial tension, but this came from a minority who were ignored for the most part by the rational people who saw the Serrakins were not like the Goa'uld.

The people of that world were highly technologically advanced civilization with a cosmopolitan society, largely directed by the Tech Con Group. Which reminded me of OCP (omni-consumer products) a fictional company in Robocop's world, or Weyland-Yutani of the Alien universe, in that they seemed to produce everything and were more or less running everything. Hopefully they weren't as corrupt.

Over time the two cultures merged with many Hebridians beginning to marry Serrakins and have children with them. Which made no sense as unlike many of the races out there in this galaxy the Serrakins were not descended from the Tauri, like the populations of many other worlds were, they were in fact a totally different race.

Also it was important to note that the Hebridian were a space faring civilization that has extended its influence across many solar systems. Together with the Serrakin they have established many colonies, spaceports and space stations.

Which meant they could be a powerful ally and that they must have some advanced tech. My stuff was better, but they may have invented tech I'd never even seen before, and I had plenty to offer them in return, such as super fast hyperdrive.

Since the Hebridians were so advanced and because they were a capitalist society that didn't think feel the need to enforce their beliefs on others, I intended to make great use of their resources.

I could afford to pay them to run schools of all kinds here in Annwn, and to manufacture goods for me, which I could pay for all that and more easily since I could get pure naquadah from the Matter Furnace. Plus I could patent some Trek tech and sell the patent to Tech Con Group. But those deals would have to wait until after they agreed to set up an embassy.

There was however a minor issue, while the Serrakins were sophonts, they weren't human and the Confederation was meant to be a human group that existed to uplift and organise human worlds. I hadn't planned on what do if some aliens wanted to join, which could confuse matters, but it was unlikely that any would want to join so perhaps I had nothing to worry about.

As for the Galarans, they had entered the galactic scene very recently, and even earlier in the timeline than expected, and they had already made an alliance with the Tauri, but somehow they'd learned about my group and they also wanted an alliance with us.

From what I'd learned the Galar were advanced, but limited to the Stargates when it came to visiting other planets, according to my source, which was actually my ability to easily hack Tauri computers using Cortana, they had offered some sort of memory device to the Tau'ri in exchange for hyperdrive technology.

If they were interested in space ships then that was something I could help them with. I could even produce small ships, like those cruisers the Asurans used, but with only basic hyperdrives and so on, and then sell them to the Galarans.

"Any word from the Optricans?" I asked.

The Optricans were a race of Humans who like the others in this galaxy were descended from the Tau'ri of Earth, living in the continent of Optrica on the same planet as the Bedrosians.

Because they believed, correctly, that they were taken from another planet, rather than having been created on their homeworld, the Optricans were in a state of war with the Bedrosians.

I'd aided them in that war in exchange for a few bits of minor technology, really it had been an excuse to test some upgrades to my ship while potential making a new ally.

"They're kind of busy at the moment" Miranda told me "We helped them win the war, but now they're stuck with peacekeeping duties".

If it was anything like the peacekeeping duties in Iraq, or whatever oil rich country it was the Americans invaded, that I'd often heard about during my life before starting Jump Chain, then the Optricans must really have their hands full and I couldn't fault them for not getting involved with my Confederation.

As for the Pangarans, a race of human from the planet Pangar that have been free of the Goa'uld for many generations, they simple weren't interested and they didn't even give a reason as to why.

I'd also tried to contact the world called Altair, alas at some point, the android Harlan provided a group of NID operatives with more information on the android technology, believing that they intended to help him, but this was a deception to allow the NID to create their own versions of SG-1 to do what they felt needed to be done.

The complex on Altair was subsequently destroyed by the theta team, a version of SG-1 created to be so ruthless that they turned against their NID controllers, the theta team destroyed the complex after Harlan confirmed that the power source for the androids couldn't be extracted.

"So who's sending who?" I asked.

I'd be attending very long and very dull meetings with these people so it was best to know who they were in advance so that I could prepare.

"The Jaffa will be represented by Masters Bra'tac" I was told "Someone called Gerak, whose taking control of the Jaffa Nation, wants both Bra'tac and Teal'c out of the way so he's sending Bra'tac to use as an ambassador, while Teal'c is now ambassador to the Tauri, and his son is on SG1 from what we know, but from your files it's pretty clear that this Gerak doesn't really care for non-Jaffa".

Gerak, if I recalled correctly, hadn't exactly been a bad guy, but he became a follower of Origin and subsequently a Prior of the Ori. Although in the end he did sacrifice his own life to help the Tauri, so he had to be a good person underneath.

I was sure he wanted what was best for the Jaffa, and this could be bad for me as a strong human government that united many human worlds would be a rival to the Free Jaffa Nation. Gerak must be concerned about that because I knew that I would be and Gerak was no fool.

"According to our intel he rose to power quickly because of what he brought with him when he joined the rebels" Miranda needlessly told me "As former First Prime of a Goa'uld called Montu, he had almost complete authority over Montu's military and Gerak used that to his advantage, placing those loyal to him in key positions".

Which is what you did when planning a coup.

"When he killed Montu, he brought all of Montu's armed forces into the Free Jaffa Nation and that represents a significant portion of their space navy strength" Miranda told me next "Other Jaffa brought in military resources too, but compared to Gerak's they weren't in good shape".

This I knew my group had spent some time and energy fixing up a Ha'tak for the Free Jaffa, they didn't have the knowledge or the resources to keep their space navy up and running.

"He also represents what we can nicely call the more conservative Jaffa" Miranda said "In fact judging by what we can tell from the reports we stole from Stargate Command most of the Jaffa don't seem to care much for humans at all".

Which was odd since it really should be the humans of the galaxy who disliked the Jaffa given they'd been the soldiers in the armies of the System Lords for thousands of years. Over the centuries thousands of humans must have had their lived ended for them by a Jaffa holding a staff weapon.

Another issue was that the more conservative Jaffa were very bound by Jaffa traditions which didn't allow for females and males to be equal. I wasn't sure on the details, but aside from that one group of female Jaffa warriors all the rest had been male.

Which made me wonder if the female Jaffa were going to put up with it should Garak more traditional views become totally dominate.

"The likes of Bra'tac and Teal'c are more liberal" Miranda mentioned "But they seem to be a minority".

This wasn't surprising if you thought about it, it might be the replicators that actually brought the Goa'uld Empire to its knees, but the Tauri had been knocking off System Lords before the Jaffa Rebellion was even a dream.

Alas for the Free Jaffa they needed Tauri help because without them there wasn't going to be a Free Jaffa Nation in the long run.

One of their problems was Tretonin. If Garak totally broke of ties with Earth then who would supply the Jaffa Nation with the Tretonin? The Jaffa needed some industrialized world to supply it to them, and the Jaffa themselves didn't do industry. Hopefully they had a supplier somewhere else in the galaxy.

While there were some Jaffa mercents, I'd met a few when out buying Goa'uld tech at a massive outdoor market, it had been human labours who'd done most of the work when the System Lords ruled. Now the liberated human slaves didn't have their gods telling them to grow food for the Jaffa armies, so where were they going to get food from?

"Garshaw of Belote will be the Tok'ra ambassador" I was now being informed,

The symbiote known as Garshaw was unusual in that she was not a child of Egeria, the mother of the Tok'ra symbiote, but a rebel Goa'uld who grew past her genetic memory and developed a disgust for her kind's reckless wars, as well as the destruction they brought on other species.

At the time of her rebellion, she was an underling of Heru'ur who was leading a battle against Apophis at a world called Belote. She falsified orders which resulted in the destruction of three of Heru'ur's motherships before it was realized that Garshaw had gone rogue. She managed to escape Heru'ur's court before she could be captured.

Later she encountered a Tok'ra cell which recruited her, cautiously of course as they suspected the possibility of betrayal. Garshaw, however, proved her loyalty and grew among their ranks. She also became the most hated of the Tok'ra among the Goa'uld System Lords with both Cronus and Yu placing a price on her head.

"I'm surprised we're getting members this high up in the Tok'ra hierarchy as an ambassador" Miranda commented "They're aren't many Tok'ra left, but if we can ally with them we'll find their intelligence network to be very useful".

There was no need to discuss the Ancients, as they were already here, and while they were helping to fix up the city-ship, which still needed some work, they had a military officer from one of their remaining warships here to act as ambassador.

Not that it really mattered as the last of the Ancients were a different galaxy and had no way of influencing events in this galaxy. I was only letting them have an embassy because they knew how to run the city-ship.

"A few of the Asgard will be here for meeting" Miranda was now telling me "They come and go as they please, but I was assured by Thor that will always have a presence here as they support the idea of the Confederation and I'm sure they've let their allies know that".

I was pleased by this.

"They're our only real allies out there" I said "Aside from Earth, but now that I'm not spending my time helping them, and I'm setting my own political faction things might sour between us and the Tauri".

Since the Ori weren't invading there wasn't much for the Tauri to worry about. The Free Jaffa Nation wasn't going to attack the people who killed so many System Lords, and the Lucian Alliance wasn't a real threat at this time.

We were also allied with the Ancients, however they had the Pegasus galaxy to worry about.

"Langara will be represented by Jonas Quinn. He's gotten a position high in the Kelownan government, but he is respected by all three governments despite his nationality and we can be sure that any agreements he makes will be given great weight by the governments he represents" it was told to me.

I was looking forward to meeting Mr Quinn, and I was sure that the Langara would be friendly, in only because I had so much to offer.

"Hebridan will be represented by a man called Miles Hagan. He recently retired from his position at Tech Con Group" Miranda said "Apparently becoming an ambassador is his idea of retirement".

This was good news for me as I wanted a good business relationship with Tech Con Group. They had massive resources, advanced technology, and as a company they'd be willing to sell me what I wanted at an agreed upon price rather than annoy me with diplomates until I gave in.

"Given their choice I think Tech Con Group see the Confederation as a chance to open up new markets" Miranda was now saying "That or they have an idea of what kind of tech we have and want to buy it".

Which I was fine with.

"Something we were more or less prepared for," I replied "But please keep an eye on them, we can't have them getting too powerful.. I don't fancy leaving a mega corporation in charge of the galaxy when we leave".

Which would be better than letting the Alliance run things.

"I suggest we take part in a race called the Loop of Kon Garat," said Miranda "They use the event to prove new and upcoming technologies. It's put on every year by Tech Con, and the winner gets a contract with Tech Con, if we enter and win, it will look good for the Confederation and let them know we've got the kind of technology they want to buy".

Which would give us some control over Tech Con,

"They once let Colonel Carter participate" I said "That sets a precedent that we can exploit to get say the Delta Flyer into the race, and even if we don't win it should draw some interest".

Hopefully the trade kind rather the kind that led to tech getting stolen.

"Galar is an interesting world" Miranda went on to say "The planet is part of the Asgard Protected Planets Treaty. Galar was once a Goa'uld slave world that was liberated by the Asgard and unlike the other worlds they've advanced quite far and unlike some other advance human worlds they've been unified politically, economically and militarily. And now that the Protected Planets Treaty doesn't need to be enforced anymore the Asgard aren't going to be involving themselves much with these worlds".

Maybe they'd join the Confederation if the Asgard put in a good word for me.

"While most of their tech isn't all that remarkable, they have made major leaps forward recently in the field of memory engram research, based on their study of recovered Goa'uld recall devices" Miranda reported "It's allowed them to develop the technology to extract, modify and implant whole memories within a person's mind".

The potential of such technology was staggering. You could place the memories of someone's training into someone's else mind. Or find out if someone was guilty of a crime by witnessing the memories of people who were actually there.

"The question is what do they want in return for this tech?" I wondered.

They could get a lot of tech from the Tauri, I had better stuff sure, but the Tauri had already made an alliance with them. Perhaps the IOA didn't want to trade weapons tech, and they were hoping to get it from me.

Which to be fair I would offer assuming they only wanted phase cannons or lasers for the ships they no doubt planned to build.

"We'll find out soon enough" said Miranda.

Indeed we would.

"So who are they sending?" I asked.

Miranda consulted her padd.

"Galar will be represented by someone called Varta. He recently became Ambassador to the Tauri, and now they want him on this city-ship, guess they must think he hasn't got enough work already" Miranda said Varta is an officer of high reputation in Galaran military".

This made sense to me.

"So these Galarans are presenting their greatest asset up front, no doubt hoping a direct approach will earn our respect" I mused.

If so then they had my thanks as with that mindset they'd be much easier to deal with than some other peoples.

"Earth is sending a woman called Shen Xiaoyi" Miranda let me know "She's a graduate of Beijing Foreign Studies University as well as the London School of Economics and Political Science. Former attachée to the Chinese mission in the United States".

Now this did surprise me, but once I thought about it I made sense of it.

"If I recall correctly the Chinese tried to take control of the Stargate using the Russians" I said to Miranda "The exact details don't matter, but I suspect that sending a Chinese ambassador is some sort of compromise or appeasement".

I could see the Chinese getting more than a little upset about the Americans having a moon base and a city-ship while they only had one space vessel. Sure the Americans were leading international teams for both, but I was sure that the Chinese weren't getting much tech of that deal.

"The Orbanians, those people with the nanite technology and naquadah reactors are sending someone called Kalan for an exchange" I was informed by the former Cerberus operative "I get the impression that they aren't interested in anything long term when it comes to political alliances, but they do seem eager to do business with us".

Well as long as we got a chance to look at their nantie tech I would be happy.

"So negotiations with the Orbanian government have been fruitful?" I asked.

Miranda had been the one to contact all those foreign governments and she got them to agree to meet with me. I was sure it helped that so many governments were full of men and that she wore a tight body suit nearly all the time.

"Very much so" she replied "The Orbanians have already agreed to process our raw naquadah for us in return for keeping a reasonable percentage of the finished product. The stuff that comes out of the Matter Furnace is good for reactors and weapons, but not so good if we want a naquadah based currency, so we'll trade some of the pure stuff for the naquadah of lower quality that they can't use for reactors".

Since naquadah was so highly valued across the galaxy the Confederation would be using the material as currency. Coins of low grade naquadah would be pocket change while coins of higher quality naquadah would be used to buy more expensive things. This way people on different Confederation worlds and visitors to those worlds could trade more easily.

"I thought we could make our own reactors?" I asked.

While even I couldn't keep track of everything I was sure that we'd gotten that technology early on.

"Their reactors are compact, they produce plenty of power, and they're so cheap we'd have to be nuts not to buy them" Miranda said to me "Once we're sure that they can overload by accident we can give them to member worlds. There are lots of planets out there that burn fossil fuels and don't need to".

I found it hard to believe that people still did that on the Earth of this reality when they could power cities with naquadah reactors that the Orbanians were quite willing to sell at a very reasonable price.

At this point I rubbed my eyes as I suddenly realised how tired I had become.

"Let's pick this up later" I said to Miranda "I'm sure you've got work to do setting things up".

As for me I needed some rest. I had a feeling that soon things would become very hectic for me so I'd best get some sleep while I still could.


End file.
